Integrated technologies and methodologies for the reconstruction of the ancient topography of Hierapolis of Phrygia (Turkey) and of its territory

Laura CASTRIANNI¹ / Giacomo DI GIACOMO¹ / Imma DITARANTO¹ / Giuseppe SCARDOZZI²

(¹University of Salento, , Department of Cultural Heritage, Lecce / ²Italian National Research Council – Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage, Lecce, Italy)

This paper cocerns use of technologies and methodologies integrated to the urban layout reconstruction of the Roman and Byzantine city of Hierapolis of Phrygia (Pamukkale, South-West Turkey), and to study the ancient topography of its territory. Researches, started since 2003 in cooperation with the Italian Archaeological Mission, are developed in a collaboration between Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBAM), the University of Salento (Lecce) and the SIRTER company Ltd.; researches are based on the integration of systematic archaeological survey, geophysical survey, use of high resolution satellite images (QuickBird, Ikonos and also images of American spy satellites), GPS systems, in integration to the few aerial photos available. In absence of up-to-date maps with a good scale for archaeological survey, satellite images has been orthorectified and used as maps; for positioning and documentation of archaeological presences, has been used also low cost navigation GPS systems, in integration to a Tablet PC and a new software (Ulixes), that allows the survey navigating on satellite images and recording of archaological elements by georeferenced schedules. The ortho-images and the numerical derived maps, with technical specification own of maps for archaeological research in scale 1:10000, become layers of Hierapolis and its territory WebGIS. Also, high and middle resolution DEMs were obtained from SRTM data and from ASTER and Ikonos-2 stereo pairs, used to orthorectify satellites images and to study the orography, and for the presentation of research results. Integration between different methodologies and technologies was fundamental for the knowledge of the city plan and its transformations between Hellenistic age and Turkish period; moreover, in its territory were reconstructed aqueducts and ancient roads, and were identified necropolis, farms, marble and travertine quarries, rural settlements and villages that were under the authority of the city.

Keywords: Landscape Archaeology, Remote Sensing, Survey, GPS, Cartography