The Roman Baths at Doclea

Emanuel DEMETRESCU | Marilena COZZOLINO | Daniele FERDANI | Vincenzo GENTILE | Tatjana KOPRIVICA
(CNR-ITABC, Monterotondo St., Italy)

Keywords: Geophysics, Photogrammetry, Virtual Reconstruction, Extended Matrix

Abstract:
The contribution presents the integration of geophisical and photogrammetric methodologies aimed at the interpretation and virtual reconstruction of the Roman Thermae at Doclea (Montenegro). The town is the most important site of the Roman period in Montenegro and has been investigated by the CNR-ITABC and the University of Podgoritza since 2016.
Given that, the research started with the aim of detetcting buried architectures and to reconstruct the overall urban layout integrating geophisical survey and 3d image-based modeling. The researches started from the Thermal Bath of the forum. Only a small part of the Roman Bath was excavated while the rest of the structures remain buried.
Geophysical survey allowed the physical parameters of the subsoil to be mapped providing useful information on the depth and shape of possible regular structures belonging to the thermal bath. The high resistivity data, were visualised as image and georeferenced togheter with aerial photos and 3d models of the extant structures excavated in 1962 and surveyed using photogrammetic approach.
The integration of this kind of data allowed the arrangment of this city’s sector to be interpreted. Basing on this, a volumetric recontruction was performed. The recostruction of the missing part was mostly based on comparisons with similar structure from other archaeological contexts and using data coming from existent building and archaeological studies performed on the city. The reconstructive record has been recorded and managed using the Extended Matrix. Workflow and integration procedures of different techniques will be deepened step by step in the article highlithing adavantages and possible developments.

Relevance conference:
The contribution integrates new technologies with the aim to enhance the scientific  interpretation and hypothesis making of an ancient archaeological context.

Relevance session:
The contribution integrates new technologies with the aim to enhance the scientific  interpretation and hypothesis making of an ancient archaeological context.

Innovation:
The innovation of the paper is in the evaluation of methods able to combine the geophysical and photogrammetric techniques into a virtual reconstruction hypothesis.

References:

  1. Koch, J., L. Kühne, R. Linck, and J.W.E. Fassbinder (2013), 3D-reconstruction of Roman sites in Bavaria based on geophysical results, in Virtual Archaeology, edited by State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg, pp. 94-102
  2. Gaffney, C. (2008), Detecting trends in the prediction of the buried past: a review of geophysical techniques in archaeology. Archaeometry 50(2). pp: 313–336