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Datafication of an Ancient Greek City: Multi-sensorial Remote Sensing of Heloros (Sicily)

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Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, and Image Processing. ICPR 2022 International Workshops and Challenges (ICPR 2022)

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Abstract

As 3D tools become increasingly used in archaeology and cultural heritage management, best practices are continuously developing to mediate their adoption. As part of an effort to revalorize the archaeological site of Heloros in southeastern Sicily, the authors have applied the concept of datafication to heuristically plan the approaches and objectives for its digitization. The process of datafication, i.e. the creation of new data through layered collection of natively digital and digitized legacy data, guided the collection of digital data aimed to consolidate archaeological and landscape data for the purposes of virtual reconstruction and planning of future interventions. The process of datafication, used here for the first time in a Mediterranean context led to the discovery of unpublished information about the previously excavated site of Heloros. Three-dimensional data were captured using terrestrial laser scanning, aerial and handheld photogrammetry, and integrated into a Geographic Information System to investigate and record the ancient Greek city of Heloros and individual elements of the site. Digitized legacy data were compared with the natively digital data of the site collected in 2021 and used to create a Digital Terrain Model. Bespoke GIS visualizations techniques were applied to identify as series of anomalies that were compared with legacy data. The preliminary results of this research led to the verification of hypotheses about the fortification system, previous excavation trenches, and the identification of possible further fortifications and unpublished use-phases of the site.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Florida, Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx), 4202 E. Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Davide Tanasi & Stephan Hassam

  2. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Institute for Digital Cultural Heritage Studies, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, Munich, 80539, Germany

    Dario Calderone & Nicola Lercari

  3. Universitá di Catania, Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Piazza Dante Alighieri, 24, Catania, 95124, Italy

    Paolino Trapani

  4. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Cto. Exterior, s/n Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico

    Gerardo Jiménez Delgado

  5. Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico di Siracusa, Eloro, Villa del Tellaro e Akrai, Viale Teocrito 66, Siracusa, 96100, Italy

    Rosa Lanteri

Authors
  1. Davide Tanasi
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  2. Stephan Hassam
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  3. Dario Calderone
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  4. Paolino Trapani
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  5. Nicola Lercari
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  6. Gerardo Jiménez Delgado
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  7. Rosa Lanteri
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Correspondence to Davide Tanasi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  2. University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada

    Bill Kapralos

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Tanasi, D. et al. (2023). Datafication of an Ancient Greek City: Multi-sensorial Remote Sensing of Heloros (Sicily). In: Rousseau, JJ., Kapralos, B. (eds) Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, and Image Processing. ICPR 2022 International Workshops and Challenges. ICPR 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13645. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37731-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37731-0_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37730-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37731-0

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