From Survey to Representation: Theoretical Background, Pratical Issues, Possibile Guidelines

Archaeological surveying undoubtedly belongs with the fields of research most elaborated in this domain of study. This is inevitably linked both to the scale of the problems tackled and – in more strictly 'physical' terms – to the fact that this operation is closely and indissolubly related to the continuous evolution of the archaeological excavation. The expectations related to archaeological surveying – to a much higher degree than to other types thereof – are much more complex and larger, ranging from a documentation of various materials found and/or of their traces to a diagnosing and differentiating the type of work to be done; from various types of finishing jobs to the documentation of different stages of destructive excavations. All this usually created ambiguous situations for the technicians in the stage of elaborating collected data and to those who did not participate in the work itself – in the stage of communication. The problems with the interpretation of data and their lack of clarity disturbed considerably the final objective of surveying: a profound knowledge of the object analyzed. The research within the Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture focussed on the establishment of the so called 'operative guidelines' which would define the methodology of surveying and representing archaeological artefacts making full advantage of new technologies, and integrating them rigorously with traditional techniques and procedures. Taking into consideration numerous survey campaigns carried out for years, the present study seeks to present a modus operandi that seems to be indispensable for standardizing and regulating procedures of data collecting, elaborating and restoring procedures applied by the research team, the aim being to make the final result scientific, i.e. more objective and correct. The guidelines are no means an rigid list of operations to be carried out. This would be futile in surveying where nothing is purely mechanical and where the abilities and the sensibility of the research worker play a significant role. The guidelines include a wide range of cases and make it possible to adjust the procedure to the object of study as well as to the exigencies of surveying itself, all the time preserving the versatility of survey. Among the campaigns carried out there were the surveys of some Roman theatres at important archaeological sites, like the Roman theatres at Petra and Jerash in Jordan, the Roman theatre and amphitheatre in the town Mérida in Spain, the Roman theatre in Taormina and – on a smaller scale – the Tempio del Divo Claudio and the Janus Arch in Rome. In many cases the objects of study were small and required a high level of detailed data for successive prototyping and so, for the physical reproduction of the artefact.