Maria Gabriella MICALE
(Italy)
Among the set of activities we call archaeology, drawing is as important as digging. The widespread use of drawing in archaeological publication does not depend only on the general assumption that the images contribute to make the archaeological texts clearer. In Near Eastern archaeology in particular, at a precise moment in development of archaeological research, drawing started to become the fundamental instrument to understand the architectural remains brought to light. Made of mud-bricks, superimposed and stratified in that sequence of layers and settlements called a tell, Near Eastern architecture only started to be really understood when archaeologists began to draw. Two and three dimensional drawings became a fundamental part of each publication, contributing not only to the knowledge of architecture itself but also to the diffusion of ideas about real life and the history of an ancient city.
The archaeological activities provide us with the data we use to imagine ancient architecture. However, whereas architectural drawings remain a fundamental part of the archaeological publication, methods of both digging and drawing have changed during last century. And, even though the aims of publishing two and three dimensional drawings seem sometimes to be the same as one hundred years ago, both production of drawings and creation of images are more and more frequently affected by the so-called “New Technologies” which are supposed to be much more informative than in the past. This paper represents the attempt to focus on both the assumptions and aims of architectural drawing in Near Eastern archaeological publications, trying to follow the paths of the development of the idea about Near Eastern architecture and settlement through the construction of its image.