300 Ancient mines in Valsesia (northeastern Piedmont, Italy): 25 years of historical research and speleological exploration Fig. 6a – Fabbriche mine: the beginning of the 77-meter shaft (photo Cristian Gugole). Fig. 6b – Fabbriche mine: a passageway amidst supporting structures (photo Paolo Testa). Fig. 7a – Valmaggia mine: a stove still intact (photo Paolo Testa).
301 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa The exploration and documentation of the Valmaggia mine has lasted for long, being the first site we started with in 1998 and hence the most frequented by our group: it has represented a sort of training place to learn and develop new progressing tecnhiques in this new environment for speleologists, also because no maps and plans were available at the beginning. The mine was completely dismantled from all mining equipment, even the metal ladders fixed in the shafts that served as passageways across the four levels, all communicating with each others. The rock is solid and there are no particular compression stresses, although some landslides obstructed part of the tunnels and the adit entrance. Full photographic documentation and a 3D survey is now available (fig. 7a-7b). The Costa del Ferro iron mining complex, due to the numerous excavations of different ages and scattered over a rather large area, as well as lack of historical documentation, has represented a very interesting and varied area from the exploration point of view, with a mixed environment of very old and intricate underground workings and more regular recent ones, following different ore bodies in a very disturbed and unpredictable geological context (fig. 8). Some of the tunnels have flooded sections due to water flowing through the connecting shafts and because of surface seepage: these zones were overcome by swimming with wetsuits, some of which had many submerged timber support structures. Fig. 7b – Valmaggia mine: the first level with deposits also on the ceiling (photo Paolo Testa). Fig. 8 – Costa del Ferro mine: recent timber support structures in an ancient, enlarged gallery (photo Paolo Testa).
302 Ancient mines in Valsesia (northeastern Piedmont, Italy): 25 years of historical research and speleological exploration Conclusions Modern mining studies (‘mining archaeology l.s.’) make it possible to identify the different types of techniques used in underground mining and metallurgical processing for extracted ores. Exploration and surveying by speleological teams are of paramount importance to support mining studies. However, speleological exploration in mines must be carried out in the same way as in caves for the preservation and conservation of mining structures and any remains (tools, etc.). Therefore, dedicated policies must be carefully adopted in the same way they are applied for animal life. It should be remembered that some of these sites have also become winter refuges for bats, mammals that are vital to our ecosystem, and then they should be protected by not frequenting the mines during the winter so as not to interfere with the animal life. The general recommendation is to promptly report any supposed archaeological finds to those involved in mining history of the area, so that all appropriate procedures for describing and preserving the remains can be put in place. Bibliography AA.VV., 1990, Alagna e le sue miniere. Cinquecento anni di attività mineraria ai piedi del Monte Rosa, Borgosesia, Associazione Turistica Pro Loco Alagna-Club Alpino Italiano, sezione di Varallo-Sezione di Archivio di Stato di Varallo, 421 pages, ill.. Barale V., 1966, Le antiche miniere di Postua e Ailoche, in Idem, Il Principato di Masserano e il Marchesato di Crevacuore, 2nd edition, Biella, Associazione Culturale Bugella, 1987, pp. 659-672. Cerri R., 1990, Minatori e fonditori di Postua nelle Valli di Lanzo sul finire del XIV secolo. Il primo caso documentato di emigrazione di mano d’opera specializzata dall’area valsesiana, ‘de Valle Sicida’, n. 1, pp. 55-78; reissued by Società Storica delle Valli di Lanzo, pubbl. n. XLIV, 1992, 32 pages. Cerri R., 2013, Il “santuario” minerario più importante delle Alpi non esiste più, ‘Notiziario CAI Varallo’, 27, n. 1, pp. 26-29. Cerri R., 2022, Oro e nichel del Landwasser: il sito minerario di Gula. Dalla Rimella Gold Mining Company al sogno di don Giuseppe Teruggi, Magenta, Zeisciu Centro Studi, 2022, 31 pp., ill.. Cerri R., Fantoni R. (eds.), 2017, L’oro del Monte Rosa, collection of papers presented during L’attività mineraria nelle Alpi. Il futuro di una storia millenaria, XXVI session of Incontri Tra/Montani, 23-25 september 2016, Gorno (BG), Varallo, CAI Sezione di Varallo, Commissione Scientifica ‘Pietro Calderini’, 80 pages, ill.. Cerri R., Nanni V., 2019, Tra storia e memoria. Iscrizioni minerarie di età moderna sul versante meridionale del Monte Rosa, in Cerri R., Fantoni R. (eds.), I segni dell’uomo. Iscrizioni su rocce, manufatti e affreschi dell’arco alpino, una fonte storica trascurata, Proceedings and guide to the excursion (Varallo, 6 october-Rima, 7 october 2018), CAI Sezione di Varallo, Commissione scientifica ‘Pietro Calderini’, pp. 63-76. Fontana E., 2000, La miniera del Fosso Grande di Valmaggia, ‘Notiziario CAI Varallo’, 14, n. 1, pp. 50-55. Fontana E., 2003, La miniera del Laghetto al monte Capio, ‘Notiziario CAI Varallo’, 17, n. 1, pp. 81-87. Testa P., 2002, La miniera dell’Isola di Vocca, ‘Notiziario CAI Varallo’, 16, n. 1, pp. 81-87.
303 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Gruppo Grotte Borgio Verezzi sez. CAI Finale Ligure, Savona, Italy 2 Gruppo Speleologico Ligure Arturo Issel, Genoa, Italy 3 Associazione Micromineralogica Italiana, Italy 4 Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri sez. Finalese e Museo Archeologico del Finale, Savona, Italy * Reference author: [email protected] Multidisciplinary research on two ancient mining sites in Western Liguria (Italy) Alberto Assi1 , Simone Baglietto1 , Marco Marchesini2,3,*, Simona Mordeglia1,4, Andrea Roccatagliata1,2, Antonio Travi2 , Daniele Vinai1 Abstract The article deals with some historical, material, and geo-mineralogical aspects related to the multidisciplinary exploration of two ancient mining cavities in West Liguria (Ponente Ligure) carried out in the most recent years by a joint team involving specialists from two speleological associations: Gruppo Grotte Borgio Verezzi sez. CAI Finale Ligure and Gruppo Speleologico Ligure Arturo Issel. Coupling bibliography reviews with field activity, it was possible to focus attention on two sites briefly described here. Aside from a novel full 3D survey, an environmentally friendly campaign of observations was carried out, trying to sort out elements in agreement or in contrast with the available historical information. The first case-history deals with the ancient Bric Gettina galena deposit (Rialto, Savona, Italy) also known as Melogno, Rocche or Purin, now included in a popular hiking trail. Ruins are still visible as well as a few adits with a few tens of meters of tunnels. The second site is the Cà dei Bassi iron deposit (Orco Feglino, Savona, Italy), less known than the previous one, even though the most recent activity dates back to the XX Century (AA.VV., 1927), when the autarchy policy made attractive even deposits as small as this. In spite of an apparently short history, the site seems to be quite interesting because of its diversity in biological and geological terms. Keywords: West Liguria, Ponente Ligure, mining, Bric Gettina, Cà dei Bassi, galena, pyrite. Introduction Materials and methods The joint team involved two associations (Gruppo Grotte Borgio Verezzi sez. CAI Finale Ligure and Gruppo Speleologico Ligure A. Issel) and covers skills and areas of knowledge including, among others, anatomy, archaeology, biology, chemistry, geology, history, mineralogy, mining , speleology. The work dealt with some historical, and scientific aspects related to the exploration of some ancient mining-related cavities in West Liguria (Ponente Ligure) carried out in the most recent years. Aside from the more traditional cave exploration, the work team paid attention to a number of lesser-known cavities, whose origin is artificial and that were dug for mining purposes. Surveying has been carried out with the LiDAR sensor mounted on an iPhone 13 PRO device using the application Scaniverse: physical visual target has been positioned in critical points to be detected and then used to facilitate data editing. Data has then been processed with Cloud Compare (graphical work) and then QGIS (georeferencing) (fig. 1). Ore and minerals were checked using Raman spectrabased techniques in collaboration with Bicocca Milan University (DISAT). Fig. 1 – The most recent Bric Gettina complete survey (embedding LiDAR data) that mimics the previous (2014) numbering and survey relevant to tunnels 1, 2 and 3 as well as to a secondary appraisal cavity (AC). Original rendering by GGBV and GSL.
304 Multidisciplinary research on two ancient mining sites in Western Liguria (Italy) Case histories and results Bric Gettina mines Small lead ore occurrences are a common encounter in Western Liguria (Jervis, 1884; Issel, 1881; Issel, 1892; Bracco et al., 1999; Del Lucchese & Delfino, 2008) in many Bric Gettina galena deposit (Rialto, Savona, Italy) also known as Melogno or Purin, has been an important mining site in the past centuries (Nesti, 2011). Ruins are still visible as well as a few adits and tunnels dug into the Palaeozoic rock (Melogno Porphyroids Fm.: Palenzona, 1980). The ore mainly consists of veinlets and pods of galena embedded in a quartz vein extending for some tens of meters, showing a significant thickness variability (at centimetric to decimetric scale). Despite the presence of relic ore (Amoretti, 1980) and some recent geological and mineralogical re-investigation efforts (Pipino, 2016), mining was already over by Napoleonic times (Barelli, 1835; Jervis 1884). History and legends about the mine seem to have been running since much more than two centuries (Caldera et al., 2020). With the exception of some mining investigation carried out in the second half of the XX Century (Pipino, 1976, 2003, 2008, 2016), from the economic geology standpoint, the deposit got neglected or forgotten for a long time (Mojon, 1805; Jervis 1884). Further scientific investigations are planned according to recent literature (Bayley, 2008) for a better assessment of the actual consistency of the materiality of the deposit . The field campaign allowed to identify five cavities, in agreement with the previous speleological works. Significant part of the mine tailings can be seen downhill the main adit (galleria 2). Part of the material is dispersed along the very steep slope underneath (main dump). Traces of pre-industrial works are still visible both outside and underground, even if significant rock removal has been done by air compressed drilling while investigating for possible mining ventures in the XX Century (fig. 2). The area is now a protected site and hosts floral and vertebrate peculiarities (Nesti, 2011). The area yielded in the past interesting minerals species (Amoretti, 1980; Antofilli et al., 1983), including wulfenite and cerussite (Castellaro, 2005 & 2008), (fig. 3). Being the mineralogy state of the art quite mature, the site still offers archaeological and historical investigation opportunities. Case Bassi mine The Case Bassi iron deposit (Orco Feglino, Savona, Italy), is poorly known to the general public, despite the recent age of the last works, dating to the first half of the XX Century, while autarchy policy made attractive metal deposits as small as this (Castello & Castello, 2021). The area is characterised by the contact between the metamorphic schists (Permo-Carboniferous) and the dolostone carbonates (Triassic). Along the irregular and tectonized contact there is a sheared pyrite layer with subordinate barite reaching a maximum thickness of about 1 m. The pyrite is often weathered and replaced by gossan rock and locally by yellow and red ochre. This assemblage is topped by the younger karstified Miocene carbonates (Pietra del Finale). The on-site observation allowed to recognize an accessible adit and a drainage secondary excavation, with diggings extending up to about 100 meters into the slope, following the irregular shape of the ore bearing layer. Distribution of pH appears variable, the site ranging from decomposing pyrite to calcite deposition conditions. Within the acidic portion of the mine there is plenty of sulphates, including crusts of secondary gypsum, very good crystals of melanterite and local rozenite patches (here reported for the first time) and other mineral phases still under investigation (fig. 4). Fig. 2 – Denting left by pre-industrial rock splitting techniques (photo GGBV and GSL). Fig. 3 – Bric Gettina gray-blackish galena ore stands out against the whitish quartz gangue (photo GGBV and GSL).
305 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Fragmentary information about iron prospecting and metallurgy in the Finale area might make a base for further investigation comparing historical and material multiscale evidence. Interesting populations, including Speleomantes strinatii, isopoda and bats are present in the main cavity, making the site interesting for its geological and biological diversity. Due to the importance of the site for the local water balance and its potential fragility, visits of the site by a general public should be discouraged. Discussion Further work is planned to include additional data into the surveys (such pH, T, and fauna distribution) to be integrated into further hydro/geological and/or historical studies. Bric Gettina site is already well known to the public, but little effort has been spent in protecting the mines causing damage from mineral gathering. We have no notice of previous extensive archaeological studies of the site that could have therefore a significant potential for future campaigns. We acknowledge that Case Basse mines haven’t been studied in the past because both cavities are located in plots of land difficult to access on logistical and practical ground. Up to now, access has been granted to the drainage tunnel, allowing us to survey the cavity and 1) gathering a few mineralogical samples to be analysed and, to a lesser extent, 2) acquiring some early biological data. Most mineralogical data from the mine comes from samples gathered in the 1990s that we were able to get in early 2023. Considering no collapse has been documented in these 20 years, a new visit to gather fresh data and survey the mine is obviously considered as an interesting further step in the research. Conclusion The early phase of the studies already allowed to make significant observations and to draw some preliminary conclusions: – The Gettina remaining artefacts exhibit interesting mining features on one of the richest lead occurrences in western Liguria / southern Piedmont areas. – The Gettina site still offers opportunities for more future in-depth geological, mining, and archaeological investigations to be coordinated with the institutional entities. – The Case Bassi site has an outstanding geological variability concentrated in a very small area, reflected in lithological, pH, watering variation within a very small distance. This is reasonably reflected in environmental and biological diversity whose investigation requires further efforts. – The involvement of different professionals with different areas of knowledge, affiliations and groups proved to be very efficient in understanding the scientific and cultural potential of the cavities of the area. – Further efforts are planned to carry on exploring these and other cavities in an integrated, scientific, and environmentally friendly manner. Bibliography AA.VV., 1927, Giacimenti Italiani di Pirite di Ferro e di Fosfati. In Memorie per il Congresso Geologico Internazionale di Madrid 1926, Ed. Ministero Dell’Economia Nazionale, Roma, 1927. Amoretti F., 1980, I minerali dell’antica miniera d’argento di Rialto (SV) - Rivista Mineralogica Italiana, n. 3, Milano 1980. Antofilli M., Borgo E., Palenzona A., 1983, I nostri minerali. Geologia e mineralogia in Liguria. SAGEP Editrice, Genova, 296 p. Barelli V., 1835, Cenni di statistica mineralogica degli Stati di S.M. il Re di Sardegna, ovvero Catalogo ragionato della raccolta formatasi presso l’Azienda Generale dell’Interno. Tipografia Giuseppe Fodratti, Torino, 686 p. Bayley J., 2008, Medieval precious metal refining: archaeology and contemporary texts compared”. In: “Archaeology, History and Science: Integrating Approaches to Ancient Materials.” Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, T. (Eds). Left Coast Press: pp. 131- 150. Bracco R., Marchesini M., Mezzano I., 1999, Novità da Terzorio. Notiziario di Mineralogia e Paleontologia Ferrania. Anno 13, pp. 25-27. Fig. 4 – The ephemeral sulphate melanterite from Case Bassi (picture by M. Marchesini).
306 Multidisciplinary research on two ancient mining sites in Western Liguria (Italy) Caldera M., Murialdo G., Tassinari M., 2020, I Del Carretto, potere e committenza artistica di una dinastia signorile tra Liguria e Piemonte (XIV-XVI secolo). Milano, pp. 325-329. Castellaro F., 2005, Novità dal Bric Gettina: allanite-(Ce). Prie, 1, pp. 102-104. Castellaro, F., 2008, Aggiornamento sul Bric Gettina. Prie, pp. 5, 4-9. Castello R., Castello G., 2021, Una miniera di ferro nel Finalese: Case Bassi. Available online https://www.archeominosapiens.it/ miniera-ferro-finalese-case-bassi/ Del Lucchese A., Delfino D., 2008, Metallurgia protostorica in Val Bormida.In: Del Lucchese, A., Gambaro, L. (Eds.), Archeologia in Liguria, n.s., I, 2004-2005, Editore De Ferrari, Genova, pp. 35-47. Issel A., 1881, Cenni sui materiali estrattivi dei monti liguri, Ricordo della Sezione ligure del Club Alpino Italiano, Tipografia dei Sordomuti, Genova. Issel A., 1892, Liguria geologica e preistorica. Donath editore, Genova. Jervis G., 1884, I Tesori Sotterranei dell’Italia. Descrizione Topografica e Geologica di tutte le località del Regno d’Italia in cui rinvengonsi Minerali. Vol. 2: Regione dell’Appennino e vulcani attivi e spenti dipendentivi. Ed. Loescher, Torino, 624 p. Mojon G.,1805, Descrizione mineralogica della Liguria. Stamperia Frugoni. Nesti W., 2011, Il Fiore e l’Argento. Le Miniere del Bric Gettina (Rialto - SV). In: Club Alpino Italiano, Convegno del Comitato Scientifico Ligure Piemontese e degli Operatori Naturalistici e Culturali, Torino - 2011, a cura di Roberto Fantoni. Palenzona A., 1980, Sulla mineralizzazione a blenda e galena del Bric gettina (Finale ligure-Savona). Notiziario del Gruppo Mineralogico Ligure, Genova, 3/1980. Pipino G., 1976, L’amministrazione napoleonica e la rinascita delle attività minerarie in Liguria. L’Industria Mineraria, 27, pp. 227- 231. Pipino G., 2003, Oro, Miniere, Storia, Museo storico dell’oro italiano, Tipografia Pesce, Ovada. Pipino G., 2008, Minerali del Savonese... nel 1816. Prie, Rivista on line, 2008 n. 4. Pipino G., 2016, L’antica miniera d’argento di Rialto nel Finale Ligure. Oro, miniere, storia 2. Miscellanea di giacimentologia, archeologia e storia mineraria. Museo storico dell’oro italiano, Tipografia Pesce, Ovada.
New technologies for analyzing and documenting the artificial cavities
Roberto Bixio, 1990 Earthquake Inspired by the graph produced by a seismograph during an earthquake. Icon of the full original painting. (Watercolour, 30×30 cm)
309 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 University of Florence – DIDA, Italy * Reference author: [email protected] Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Tuscany, Italy) Carmela Crescenzi1,*, Alessandro Baldacci1 Abstract In recent years, underground architectural heritage has attracted significant interest among specialists and the public. This novel empathy goes beyond the most celebrated monumental structures and is paid to magic “genius loci”, to symbiotic natural and carved built environment. The awareness that small centres with few dwelling or broad underground areas should be considered a unique habitat in which natural components and human-made artefacts are part of the same cultural landscape has led us to create an original aesthetics of representation. Underground living, even in its visible romantic expression - characterised sometimes by apparently uncontrolled geometric forms- is part of a continuing process including necessary changes and adaptation to respond to the environment and social constraints. The village of Vitozza in the Sorano area in Tuscany is a significant example of this perfect integration of human habitat and environment. The tufaceous landscape stretches across a hill between two rivers and is characterised by an urban structure perfectly integrated into the environment. In this paper, the interplay between the urban form and human artefacts is described to represent the aspects that characterise living underground. In particular, we investigate the relationship between single units and their surroundings, the aspects of light and darkness and their variations according to the different seasons, and the geometrical features that generate a natural continuity between the interior and exterior. For doing so, Lidar scanning and structure from motion techniques have been used to document the site at different scales in various phases. The data collected have been analysed and represented considering human and urban scale to highlight the relationship between the tangible and intangible heritage of a complex reality that has been evolving for different centuries. Keywords: Vitozza, Sorano, rock-cut architecture, digital photogrammetry, architecture survey. Introduction Geographical notes The rupestrian settlement of Vitozza (42.678425908062486, 11.75601286843244) is one of the most important rupestrian sites in central Italy and its analysis can be profoundly significant to the contemporary idea of landscape heritage culture from both an ethical and an aesthetic point of view. It’s an archaeological natural park, safeguarded and promoted by the Municipality and supported in research and development work by local and university scholars. Vitozza has recently become a known destination for tourists; this has allowed the local population to rediscover the cultural and economic value of their landscape as a profoundly historical memory of an ancient anthropic experience immersed in a luxuriant wooded natural context of diversified biodiversity. The rock settlement extends from the east of Sorano, the municipality it belongs to, and develops up to the slopes of a plateau overlooking the branches of the springs of the Lente stream and the confluence of the Felcetone ditch (Fosso di San Quirico). The territory around is made up of volcanic soils: the western slope of the hill is characterized by tuffs and ignimbrites, which rises gently from the Fiora River valley up to the Volsini Mountains, the northern fringe of the volcanic cone of Lake Bolsena. In this extremely rich and complex morphology, where stream erosion shaped the volcanic ground and created deep gorges, humans have found the perfect environment to protect and live. After going down the road to Vitozza and crossing a narrow bridge, we’ll find a small road next to rocky front with few small windows and doors spread over multiple levels. In spring, when the vegetation is dense and luxuriant, these openings can be almost completely hidden and impossible to be seen, in fact the perception of the site constantly changes and evolves its colours with time. Passed the Piancistalla area and approaching the Vitozza village, the rocks openings slightly increase in number and volume overlooking the ancient stone road where furrows traced by carts become more and more visible. After circa 1 km, perched on a rock peak, a huge masonry in cut ashlars, stands out on the crossroads and lies on the sharp brink of a steep slope, dividing the plateau of the Castle from the upper edge
310 Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Italy) of Piancistalla and dominating the valley of the Lente and Felcetone. This is the edge, where the ancient rock village of Vitozza begins. Historical notes Vitozza is one of many Tuscan rupestrian settlements, but its natural and artificial stratigraphy is more vivid and clear than other sites’; the overlap of masonry buildings, fortifications (from 12th-13th century) and Chiesaccia over the pre-existing excavated rupestrian plant is extremely fascinating and helpful for social, historical and architectural researches. The headland (the plateau with its slopes), on which the settlement lies, is bordered to the south-east by the ruins of an ancient fortress called First Castle (fig. 1), that overlooks an artificial moat, and bordered to the north-west by a second fortress called Second Castle, protected by steep and tall rocky walls. Both strongholds dominate over artificial ditches that protect them from possible attacks from within. On the southwest front of the fortresses, fragmented traces of ancient walls descend to the valley. On the same side, the stone cart track continues the itinerary until it reaches the ruins of the third fortified pole of Sant’Angiolino. The fortified centre served an essential strategic function in 1223, when the fortress was requested by the Orvietani family, together with the castle of Pitigliano, as a ransom for the release of the Aldobrandeschi brothers (Parenti, 1980: 21). Furthermore “The importance achieved by Vitozza, immediately after Sovana and Pitigliano, it is well documented by the recorded tithe from the years 1276-77, when the two ecclesiae of Vitozza, San Quirico and San Bartolomeo, contributed respectively of VI pounds and V pounds and X coins, way higher than the tithe of the church of Sorano and of the parish church of San Giovanni Battista in Pitigliano”. (Parenti, 1980: 22). The declining fortune of the fortified centre is attested in a 1454 document, that states, “...the Sienese army, coming from Monte Amiata, had occupied all the hills around Sorano, from the San Valentino plateau up to the place where once it was Vitozza”. (Parenti, 1980: 26). During the 1455 clashes, the Orsini family defeated the Sienese army and reoccupied Vitozza. However, they did not restore the original fortification, so that the population, that had abandoned it during the Sienese occupation, did not return to Vitozza (Biondi 1988: p. 27). The ancient attendance of the site is testified by ceramic fragments from the protohistoric era and some lithic materials from the neo-Neolithic. The structure of the medieval settlement is still easily distinguishable despite many collapses of the rocky fronts over the centuries, when the constant care and maintenance of its original inhabitants has given way to complete abandonment. Indeed, only recently the local administration tried to rearrange this ancient and precious site in order to transform it in an openair archaeological park. Unlike the ruined masonry constructions, some populations lived in the caves of Vitozza at least until the second half of the eighteenth century, as attested by the estimates, around 1783. The cave village Urban characterisation At the foot of the fortress, little paths branch off directed to the original village centres, which are locatFig. 1 – Vitozza. First Castle, Northeast Environmental Longitudinal Section. The ratio between the top of the plateau and the mid-slope route. The fortification is the first of the two fortresses that characterize the remains of the medieval castle of Vitozza. Survey 3DS L3DS Riegl-Faro. Point cloud processing, Recap pro. A.A. 2022/23 (graphics L. Giugno).
311 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa ed on the opposite southwest and northwest sides. On the southwest route, less than 100 Mt away, a wide road branches off leading up to the plateau where a rounded arch introduces the fortified village. The path that runs SW had protective walls: we can still find small traces of this boundary on the scarp, as mentioned above. The access from the road to the plateau for loads and livestock was guaranteed by some cut caves, of which a notable example is located immediately after cave 31 and between caves 30 and 29 and perhaps even between caves 13 and 12. These passages were clearly created by cutting some caves, suggesting that the rock settlement existed way before the construction of the two forts. Almost all the caves (Parenti, 1980: planimetry) look onto the same stretch of slopes (the first castle and the cut after the church), both those facing SW and those facing NE, share the same typological characteristics and features. The stone track serves the caves, which are arranged on two or three levels connected with narrow staircases leading to the plateau. (fig 2)Part of these connections is not fully accessible nowadays because climbing plants and undergrowth vegetation created an accessible hurdle covering them entirely. The two upper levels of this caves’ series probably constituted a nucleus exclusively intended for housing and storage purposes, because their arrangement full of niches, basins and various shelves made them suitable for collecting water, plus their height made them impossible to be reached by large animals. Although not being easily accessible, we can find some others small openings downstream of the route. Multi-level caves with internal connections are very rare, but there may be others still hidden because the archaeological complex has not yet been fully excavated.The only “duplex” unit which is well preserved and open to visitors is cave 22, consisting of two rooms whose internal connection is perhaps later than the caves’ period (Parenti 1980: p. 60). There are also other examples, such as cave 20, where at the bottom of the left-hand compartment nowadays almost completely closed off, there is access to two entrance caves located at a lower level. In fact the largely collapsed caves on the right of cave 34 may have originally been a two-storey cave. Typology of the caves While considering remarkable difficulty in finding common cataloguing, Roberto Parenti (1980: 42 - 44) classifies the caves according to the characteristics of the openings and the furnishings they have inside; he also reports the impossibility of dating the excavations Fig. 2 – Vitozza. Environment Section. On the top is Cave 24, a south-southwest opening with a slight west window controlling the route; under Cave 25, with a southwest entrance. A.A. 2019/20 (graphics C. G. Manzo).
312 Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Italy) according “normal surveys tools and paths”. With almost zero reliable data on the excavation chronology and on the original destination, and without any reliable information on the excavation methods and tools, Parenti based his analytical outline to differentiate the excavation dates between two groups of caves, on comparisons and empirical assumptions. Through a direct comparison with the caves of Castel Prociano, he dates the first group (the most recent one) between 1000 and 1200 AD. According to Parenti, the first group of caves is characterized by rectangular or quadrangular openings, they have a roughly regular floor plan and usually a chimney flue next to the door. These caves open onto the stretch of the settlement to the southwest, between the first fortress and the central church. The caves on the NE side date from the same period and their main trait is having a quite regular rectangular floor plan. We can focus on a group of caves, located immediately below the plateau, that are characterized by an area partially block by the rock walls, located in front of the entrance. On these battlements that follow the natural course of the rock, some wooden were originally built. In Parenti’s filing, the area in front is called “dromos”, but only in a few cases we find cut accesses next to these spaces, which perhaps served for accessing and counting animals (fig. 3). In the same spot, some of the caves have a perfectly rectangular opening in the ceiling, generally covered with squared blocks of tufa, which perhaps was the entrance to the passage corresponding to the masonry houses on the plateau. An example of this type of cave is Cave 57 (fig. 3). On this side of the hill, there’s a more significant number of caves showing equipment for sheltering animals than on this other side: these caves are equipped with feeders for large animals with through holes dug into the tuff, plus troughs and niches for sheltering small animals. The second group of caves, the most ancient one, includes a particular typology, especially in Vitozza, that is characterized by an archivolt opening and a roughly circular sector in plan with a dividing septum in the tuff. Parenti hypothesizes that the planimetric tracing was obtained with the guidance of a rope passing through the entrance and the corner of the internal wall. The cave was thus divided into two parts: the scholar expounds that room between the two with more regular walls was more suitable for accommodating bed shelves, while the other one with a rounded volume was used as an animal shelter with equipment for feeding troughs. While sharing with Parenti’s hypothesis the idea of tracing the planimetric control of the rooms with the help of the rope, we believe that the different conformation could be due to the subsequent adaptation of the room from being a house to a small stable. According to Parenti, the factors that suggest an archaic bicellular typology are the formal analogy of the archivolted opening of the caves and the existing columbarium on the north-west side of the headland, the presence of cut caves upstream of caves 29 and 30, and again the lack of a close relationship between the masonry structures and the distribution of these caves on both sides of the slope. We deem Parenti’s analysis on the archaic nature of the village acceptable considering only the fortification of the cape and not its subdivision among the caves. Next to the septum caves, there are some single-celled caves of different sizes, of which a conceivable interpretation can be that those were the outbuildings serving the houses. An overall analysis of urban nature could lead to new deductions on the relationships of aggregations and family dwellings. Furthermore, we should consider in our analysis that, on the NW front, there’s a series of caves, not surveyed by Parenti, which had the collecting rainwater from the plateau. These are the caves placed at the end of the steps between caves 18 and 19 (fig.4), the cave 27 that is unicellular, the adjoining and intercommunicating room with cave 70 and reachable by a ladder from the plateau and two other caves between the n° 70 and the cut out near n° 32. They have a water collecting system dug into the stone wall and various tanks for decanting the collected water. Survey and representation on the vitozza castle cultural rock landscape State of art There are various techniques for the representation of rock environments because of the diversified subjects of scholars’ specific interests and the surveyor’s level of technical capabilities, plus the amount of time available for surveying. In any case, the request of all scholars is creating graphic documents that allow recognizing, in a scale survey, the furnishings that characterize them (Dalmiglio 2020: p. 24) and finding the clearest and most intuitive way possible the detectors can communicate not only the results of their study but also the physical perceptions of the site. The archaeological interpretations of Vitozza are still based on the archaeological research of Parenti R. (1980), plus the additions of Boldrini E. and De Luca D. (1988) on the historical study of Biondi A. (1988) and some other very few scholars of the last century. The graphic representations in Parenti’s volume are vivid and linear, with a surprising restitution and excellent legibility, but its drawings are limited to planimetric sections of the excavated artefacts only. The floor plans from his publication are a synthetic result of many images, eidotypes and metric data collected through traditional tools and methods together with many physical limits and dangers. However, this graphic way of representation conceptually removes the excavated units of the settlement from their physical environment. Therefore, the planimetry lose all the references and connections with the outdoor natural morphology.
313 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Fig. 3 – North-east glacis. Plant caves 55/57. Sections of cave 57. On the northwest wall of Cave 57, we find a cross with a calvary almost the entire wall. SFM, processing Metashape Pro. A.A. 2022/23 (graphics E. Zaka, G. Valdinoci).
314 Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Italy) Boldrini E. and De Luca D. redrew some of the caves already present in Parenti’s survey. They added some axonometric drawings, of which one dedicated to Cave 15. Furthermore, they integrated the existing data with the unpublished documentation of the caves from 70 to 73 (Boldrini 1988: 39-45) and with an archaeological investigation on the covers of the same caves. The description is entrusted to spare floor plants and section profiles and only in the upper archaeological area we can find a real planimetry and some graphic attempt to properly depict the rocky shape of the hill and to contextualize the artefacts excavated on the top of it. Heritage and Education The survey campaigns involve academic seminars and laboratory activities, integrating with multiple researches and teachings. These are the basis of an educational project focused on the knowledge, enhancement and promotion of the historical and cultural heritage. It integrates technical and technological skills with a purpose of a numerical discretion of the site and in order to promote a careful investigation of its cultural signs. The project aims to activate a cognitive circuit that develops different skills suitable for different topics, such as: - The identification of the close relationship between tangible and intangible elements of the territory and its physical and emotional elements. - The training of scholars and professionals capable of discovering and revealing the contents of a cultural landscape. It is an intrinsic process that the enhancement of the intangible cultural heritage, in terms of traditional knowledge, through the reinterpretation of the tangible, heavily stimulates curiosity and creativity in various training and design methods. (Trocchinesi, 2017:3) The surveys with a lifespan of many seasons and years, have helped to grasp unusual and hidden aspects in the context of architectural documentation and to focus more on topics like the landscape’s aesthetics principles and the intangible value of the influence on human feeling. A subsequent dimension is the enhancement of the tangible through the intangible and vice versa. In an archaeological landscape context, there are many cultural elements, of which the general public almost never reach a fully understanding of its value and its narrative significance. We must support the direct use of the tangible asset with a proper narration extracted from deep and complete knowledge, in our case study, of each excavated unit, of its nuclei, their development and degradation. At the same time, it’s essential to leverage the intangible value of the asset itself to involve the users even more. Data representation The rock habitats survey springs a vast and endless multidisciplinary skills process. The innovative techniques for the survey of the territory and its architecture, through digital photogrammetry (Gaiani, 2017) and laser scanner surveying methods, let the researchers to reveal not only the morphological aspects of the “real form” but also to compare and fully analyse the collected data, in order to evaluate the formal appearances of use and the quality of life, seeking builders’ technical skills by subtraction. For example, one of the aspects to be evaluated is the quality of the sunshine lighting in the rooms (Assimakopoulou, 2012:109-113) and the cultural astronomical level of knowledges the builders had during the designing and construction processes. The planimetry being controlled and measured by a rope, as Parenti hypothesizes, also suggests a possible control depth and width of the units and their relationship with the opening in order to achieve a sufficient contribution of solar lighting. (fig.5) From this ongoing study, the arrangement of the openings, the trapezoidal plan, especially in the caves with a septum, and the depth of the rooms, where alterations were very few, directly respond to bio-climate criteria. Following the orientation of the rampart and its sides, the openings are mainly oriented to the southwest and in few cases, to the south, of which many units have small overlooking the west side. The three-dimensional models from laser scanners and three-dimensional photogrammetry support continuous and interdisciplinary hermeneutical research. The models provide specific cognitive contributions and allow to create innovative and unusual analyses for these specific environments. The interdisciplinary questions posed to the models, the exchanges and comparisons of opinions, suggests new research paths, which can be conducted on the same models in situ or even remotely. Thus, we have a continuous and seamless interactivity between the Fig. 4 – On the cave walls, there are furrows to collect infiltration water, structures for settling and tanks for accumulation. A.A. 2021/22 (graphics A. Picci).
315 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa data translation and the intuitions, insights and integration of studies. The digital model, consisting of extensive external and internal data, recreates a measured frame of the relationship between the natural habitat of the extrados and the artificial intrados. It allows us to quickly and easily visualize the complexity of the rocky scenery’s aesthetics. The representation of the relations between the artificial part and the whole natural complex together with a convincing visual development of them, is a central research topic of various authors. The researchers integrate traditional and innovative techniques (Crescenzi 2016-2023), introduce classified chromatic codes (Colonnese et al, 2016), third-dimensional information from central contour lines, and their insertion in the photogrammetric context (fig. 6), and they introduce the aesthetic interpretation of the natural context of the landscape (fig. 8). Digital survey The studies carried out by the DIDA Laboratory researchers are based on a digital survey using threedimensional photogrammetry and lidar technique (Light Detection and Ranging), suited for a complete documentation of the natural rocky structure of the thematic context. (Crescenzi 2020). We conducted the survey campaign over several years with different instruments and operators. Therefore, the data documentation and the caves’ graphic rendering are not homogeneous. However, the lack of homogeneity of the recollected data has stimulated new visual solutions to enhance the cultural heritage’s value of the sites. The investigations, carried out between 2014 and 2018, involved the use of three leading 3D laser scanners. We obtained black-and-white architectural and landscape scans through Faro Focus Cam/2 and Z+F 5006h. Moreover, with a long-range unit Riegl VZ400 (2014), we have detected the path along the southwest coast and the Castle in colour. Then, from 2019 to 2022, we used Faro Focus S 70 in HDR for the architectural and environmental survey in colour. Merging the environmental and architectural scans into a single unified model required painstaking and long post-processing work in order to align and aggregate all the collected data. The survey of the road has been our backbone pivot for the insert of all the architectural units’ network. The enormous size of area, changing environmental conditions and the rough morphology of the rock necessarily required the temporary use of natural and movable marker. The correct continuity of the spaces was ensured by overlapping the detection areas. Subdivided by settlement unit, integrated models have been developed and elaborated with specific target systems linked to natural points. In order to avoid misalignment cases and create an organic and detailed vision of landscape and architecture, we recorded every scan with large overlapping areas. Fig. 5 – Southwest side. Cave 27, type with tuff septum. Study of sunshine. Point of maximum entry of direct light, in order, from the winter solstice to the autumn equinox. The graph summarizes the trend over the four days under review. A.A. 2022/23 (graphics E. Pieroni and F. Sini).
316 Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Italy) In the first phase of the work, the data were processed by using Cyclon 6 together with Riegel, a specific program for landscape modelling. Since 2019, the software we have used for the point clouds’ general management and alignment process is Recap Pro 20/22. Alignment is precise, easy and quite fast. If the operators insert the scans strictly in chronological and linear succession, the program automatically identifies and aligns them with a correct and sufficient overlapping data and non-discordant light factors. On the contrary a manual intervention is essential when files have narrow overlap, burnt data, overexposed or underexposed lights factors, such as with scans between internal and external spaces. We also used the software Recap to obtain extensive ortho images, setting the same export factors for each scan with different pixel size. Then, using raster processing programs, we overlapped and integrated the parts by homogenizing their colour. The challenging part of this work has been integrating scans and images taken in different hours, seasons and years and still reaching an overall faithful visual rendering of the site. The black and white laser data have been combined with the colour ones with appropriate chromatic balancing treatment (fig. 6). All the gaps from laser scans’ 3d model have been digitally filled and harmonised with the photogrammetric images’ mosaic and vice versa. The interpretation of a rocky cultural landscape in a complex archaeological context requires a multidisciplinary choral research study, based on both oral and written sources, material and spiritual symbols and traditions, always following codified scientific methFig. 6 – Cave 13. The contour lines, integrated with the orthophotos, facilitate the reading of the morphology of the surfaces. A.A. 2019/20 (graphics A. Smeraldi). Fig. 7 – Cave 17. The sections carried out for each wall front are reversed concerning the plan to allow a comparative reading of the series of holes and simplify the comprehension and interpretation of the data. Photogrammetric rendering in Metashape Pro. A.A. 2019/20 (graphics B. J. Snickars).
317 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Fig. 8 – a) Prospectus in SFM, processed with Metashape Pro. A.A. 2021/22 (graphics S. Leone, D. Santini, E. Vergari); b), c) survey with Riegel, and zf. The colour data are integrated with those in black and white, treated with different pigmentation. A.A. 2019/20 (graphics B. J. Snickars); d) environmental section, integrating Riegl data with SFM processing in Metashape Pro. A.A. 2019/20 (graphics B. J. Snickars).
318 Re-defining the relationships between the tangible and intangible heritage: the rock-cut village of Vitozza, Sorano (Italy) ods. Anyway, the most important document or record is the monument itself: its text is made of traces and signs and it’s up to us to read and codify them. The interdisciplinary studies on interpretation and communication of the site require comprehensive and extensive documentation, innovative 3d modelling representation of the artefacts and consolidated Monge representation methods (fig. 7). Researches and studies on rock sites open new questions about the limits of existing tools and new integrated methodologies in order to better investigate the urban structure and the connections of architectural community aggregations though centuries. Decorations, like the stringcourses or frames in some of the first caves we analysed, show a universal human desire to embellish and elevate the aesthetics’ quality of the functional features of its residential space. A meticulous analysis of every decorative or structural detail, extended to all the structures, is the key to fully understand this natural-urban landscape. Above all, the scientific and rigorous study of sunlight proved to be incredible useful: in fact, its application on the housing units (caves 26-27 a-b, 28, 29) showed us that, despite covering the same amount of space with a similar arrangement of the openings, the quantity and quality of sunlight is different and that determined the function of every room. A subsequent in-depth analysis would enlarge and improve this typological taxonomic research of the archaeological park of Vitozza. Acknowledgments The mission in Vitozza, was supported by the Sorano Municipality and the Mayors Pierandrea Vanni and Carla Benocci, by the Councillor for Culture Tiziana Peruzzi. 2015 - The Riegl scan was carried out by F. Tioli.; The ZF by C. Giustiniani G. Tarabella; 2021 - The Faro C. Crescenzi, L. Nicolì. This paper is the result of a coordinated work by the two authors. In particular, A. Baldacci has edited paragraph 1 and cured the English translation; also it has taken part in the survey and elaboration stages. C. Crescenzi has edited from 2 to 4 paragraphs; moreover, she has personally conducted the surveys with the 3DS and photographs and directed the seminar stages since 2015. Credits The graphic restitution of the data was carried out in the Architecture Degree Course, Architectural Survey Laboratory, course C. Bibliography Assimakopoulou M, Petraki E., Tzolaki A., 2012, Microclimatic advantages of underground construction. (a cura) Crescenzi C, In Rupestrian settlements in the Mediterranean region. From Archaeology to good practices for their restauration and protection. Tip. Il David, Firenze, June 2012. Boldrini E., De Luca D. 1988, Progetto Vitozza. A.T.L.A. Pitigliano. Carpiceci M, Colonnese F., Inglese C., Angelini A., 2017, Model and experience. Measuring deformations of rupestrian architectures in the area of Goreme. Proceedings of the International Congress in Artificial Cavities “Hypogea 2017”, Cappadocia (Turkey), March 6/8, pp. 30-39. Ciuffoletti Z., 2022, (a cura di) Sorano. Storia di una comunità. Centro Editoriale Toscano. Firenze. Colonnese F., Carpiceci M., Inglese C., 2016, Conveying Cappadocia. The representation of rock-cave architecture by contour lines and chromatic codes. Virtual Archaeology Review, n° 7 (14), pp. 13-19. Crescenzi C., 2012, Rupestrian Landscape and settlements. Workshops and survey results. CRHIMA-cinp project. DAsp, UniFI. Tip. Il David, Firenze. Crescenzi C., Verdiani G., 2013, The CHRIMA project: In-vestigating the rupestrian architecture in the Mediterrane-an area. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies 2012 (CHNT 17, 2012). Crescenzi C., 2020, Survey of landscape surrounded, by the Göreme and Kılıçlar valleys. In Güllüdere and Kızılçukur: the Rose Valley and the Red Valley in Cappadocia. International Carlo Scarpa. Prize for Gardens 2020–2021. 31st edition, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche. Antiga. pp. 170-178. Crescenzi C., LLopis J., 2023, The “cuevas de los moros” in Bocairente (ES). On the integrated expeditious survey. In Proceedings CIPA 2023. Firenze. Dalmiglio P., De Minicis E., Desiderio V., Pastura G., 2020, Archeologia del rupestre nel Medioevo. Metodi di analisi e strumenti interpretativi. Edipuglia, Bari 2020. ISBN: 978-88-7228-945-7. Gaiani M, Apollonio FI, Ballabeni A, Remondino F., 2017, Securing colour fidelity in 3D architectural heritage scenarios. Sensors.17(11):2437, https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112437\. Parenti R., 1980, Vitozza: un insediamento rupestre nel territorio di Sorano, Firenze 1980. Repetti E., 1843, Dizionario geografico-fisico-storico della Toscana, Firenze. Trocchianesi R., 2017, Dialoghi sul design per i territori in Tangibile e Intangibile: concetti sfumati e coesistenti, (a cura di Parente M., Lupo E., Sedini C.,) 02, pp. 7-8.
319 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Associazione Cocceivs - [email protected] The Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy) Flavian Amphitheatre cisterns: a basic experience in 3D modelling with LIDAR Graziano Ferrari1 Abstract Thanks to an agreement with the Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Park, the Cocceius Association has been carrying out research into the Pozzuoli Flavian Amphitheatre water management system. Rain water was collected from the cavea and stored into a number of cisterns. These fed small fountains at the ground level; waste water was then collected by a complex system of underground drainage channels on two levels, still functional. Furthermore, an aqueduct branch provided fresh water to the underground Amphitheatre level under the arena. Up to thirteen cisterns were identified, mostly symmetrically spaced within the Amphitheatre structure. The research analyses the cistern characteristics: volume, intakes, out-takes, manholes, lining, corner moulds, debris fillings, etc. In this scope, a test survey was performed on the Amphitheatre cisterns with an iPhone 14 Pro and the Scaniverse app. The paper reports on the experience garnered in such a survey session. Both general and specific matters are dealt with. Specific matters are relevant to the survey process in the context of the Amphitheatre cisterns, while general matters are relevant to the general context of surveying in confined spaces with an iPhone Lidar. As a result, the test provided attractive 3D models, with a very favourable time/result ratio and an interesting cost/result ratio. The results are useful in a preliminary cavity characterization and in research demonstration / exploitation. However, attention must be paid to issues like: survey path planning, effects of overlapping, sensor range, lighting, effects of survey suspension / resuming on model acquisition, surface rendering, device power consumption. Keywords: Roman hydraulics, Roman amphitheatre, water management. Introduction The Flavian Amphitheatre in Pozzuoli (fig. 1) is among the largest known Roman amphitheatres. Between the late Republican age (1st century BC) and the early Imperial age (late 1st century BC – 1st century AD) Puteoli was the main commercial harbour in the Roman economic system. Furthermore, the nearby lakes in the Phlegraean Fields hosted the Tyrrhenian fleet harbour. In the late Republican age, an amphitheatre was erected in an area just outside the main Roman settlement in Puteoli, on the road to Neapolis. Few decades later, in the Flavian age, the growth in population dictated the construction of a new, larger amphitheatre, alongside the older one. At the beginning of the Christian era, the Flavian amphitheatre was the location of the martyrdom of Saints Januarius and Proculus. Presently, the amphitheatre is a monument open to public, under the management by the Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Park. It is renowned for the underground spaces located under the arena, which are particularly well preserved. In the course of a comprehensive research on the amphitheatre water management system, a number of cisterns were identified and characterised. As a beginner experience in 3D modelling, cistern models were produced, so as to ascertain advantages, drawbacks and best practices in 3D data acquisition. As a first step, only the data acquisition phase is considered; the post-processing phase is left to further tests. Materials and methods The amphitheatre cavea is supported by masonry structures defining 72 radial sectors (cunei). The whole amphitheatre is divided into four symmetrical quarters, each composed of 18 sectors. A main annular corridor divides each sector, with respect to the arena, into an outer and an inner section. Forty outer sections include stairways connecting to the ground level. Spaces between ground level and the stairways were designed to hold water tanks. Rain water was collected on the cavea and thence by drains into clay pipes and to the cisterns. Pipes supplied drinking fountains at ground level. Waste water then entered underground drainage channels to a main sewer located under the amphitheatre major axis and then to the sea. The drainage system is still partly functional. In Medieval and later times, the arena and the cavea were cultivated as a vineyard, while the spaces under the cavea were used as living quarters for farmers.
320 The Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy) Flavian Amphitheatre cisterns: a basic experience in 3D modelling with LIDAR Some cisterns retained their original function, while others were filled with debris. The whole Flavian Amphitheatre is a little researched monument. Its recovery started in 1839 (Bonucci, 1839). Charles Dubois, a French art historian and archaeologist, reported about the Amphitheatre structure. He included a plan that shows some cisterns (Dubois, 1907, pp. 316, fig. 33), mentions eight cisterns and provides information about the one nearest to the then access to the Amphitheatre (Dubois, 1907, pp. 334-335). In 1955, Amedeo Maiuri, Superintendent to antiquities in Campania, published a book on the Flavian Amphitheatre (Maiuri, 1955). He mentioned the cisterns and the fountains they supplied. A cross-sections shows the water collection, storage and drainage systems (Maiuri, 1955, p. 37, fig. 9), together with a cistern (fig. 2). We identified up to 13 cisterns (fig. 3), even if we are still not able to enter two of them (brown circles in fig. 3). Seven cisterns are composed of two chambers, while four consist of a single chamber and the last two of four chambers. The typical two-chamber cistern size is 3 m width and 7.5 m length (fig. 4). Height is variable, due to sloping roofs under staircases and the earth and other debris that has filled the cisterns over the years, the maximum cistern height is about nine meters. Fig. 2 – Cross-section of the Amphitheatre structure and drainage system (from Maiuri, 1955, modified). Fig. 1 – Location of Pozzuoli and the Flavian Amphitheatre in the Phlegraean Fields (digital terrain model by Campania Region GIS, modified).
321 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa The Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Park recently commissioned a laser scanner survey in the Flavian Amphitheatre. However, the cisterns and the underground drainage systems are awkward sites to deploy a laser scanning device, so they were not scanned. Recently, the LIDAR sensor in Apple iPhones raised interest in the archaeological and speleological community. Some tests were performed (Fiorini, 2022). They showed that the overall quality is not comparable to traditional techniques (e.g. laser-scanning, photogrammetric, photographic) as far as small to medium-sized items (e.g. marble capital) or masonry walls are concerned. However, poorly lit, confined spaces can be surveyed in a fairly efficient way with respect to other techniques. In order to check advantages and drawbacks of the Apple LIDAR sensor in the archaeo-speleology field, we performed a number of tests in the Flavian Amphitheatre cisterns. Data acquisition was performed with an Apple iPhone 14 Pro, with IOS V16.2, 256 GBytes RAM, and the Scaniverse application V2.1.4, with Large object scan size and Area mode processing. The acquisition procedures were kept as simple and naive as possible, in order quickly to gather information about procedure troubles and technology drawbacks in a real archaeological confined spaces context. Access to some cisterns was possible only by vertical manholes or horizontal passages from the top; in the past, inhabitants of the site opened passages on side walls at middle height or at the bottom. Access is now possible by climbing up or crawling in side passages, or by lowering down a ladder from the top. This means in some cases the surveyor must suspend acquisition, climb up or down and then resume the scan. If, due to the accumulated debris in some chambers, the ladder cannot be moved to reach the next chamber, the surveyor must scan the next chamber from the connection passage. Fig. 3 – The Amphitheatre cistern locations (plan by the Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Park, modified).
322 The Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy) Flavian Amphitheatre cisterns: a basic experience in 3D modelling with LIDAR Fig. 4 – A two-chambers cistern example scan. Fig. 5 – Issues in scan results: device shadows (top), iron gates and missing scan areas (bottom). Fig. 6 – Irregular vegetation and square vertical cistern access (from above).
323 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Results Apart from the two inaccessible cisterns, all known cisterns were scanned. The highest scanned cistern measures 8.55 meters. Scan time is short; it ranges from one to five minutes, according to the cistern structure and to the need to suspend and resume scan. All eleven cisterns were scanned in a single four-hours session, as separate scans; the LIDAR sensor is quite power hungry, but the iPhone battery is able to manage many long scans. Similarly, even big scans with saved raw data, which produce more than one Gbyte data, are feasible for the device memory. The resulting scans are affected by several issues: 1. some areas high on the walls and on the roof were not scanned; in Large object scan size, the LIDAR sensor range reaches a maximum of 5 m distance, so higher cistern areas were out of range; 2. some small areas in the lower cistern portions were not scanned; this is due to a poor and hurried path planning, that missed some hidden areas, especially where stone blocks, wooden planks or iron gates (fig. 5, bottom) are present inside the cistern or where the scan was performed from an access window, without entering the cistern; 3. often, shadows are visible on the cistern surfaces (fig. 5, top); we relied only on helmet-mounted lighting, so the processing phase often picked up the phone shadow itself; 4. the surface rendering quality is not uniform; of course, quality depends on range, where farther surfaces show coarser renderings; however, even the phone movement speed and occasional jumps may cause bad rendering; 5. in some cases, a surface overlapping showed up; this happened when a duplicated scan was performed, especially when a suspend-climb-resume procedure was applied; 6. in some places, vegetation grows over the unroofed structures; scan quality is particularly affected by vegetation, which is extremely irregular in shape and surface (fig. 6). Discussion In summary, the iPhone Pro LIDAR technology allows surveyors to collect 3D survey data in a very quick way, with a non-cheap but affordable expense. The overall result is an attractive representation of a cavity, suitable for presentations and project exploitation/dissemination. Measurement accuracy can be evaluated by comparison between the linear measures provided by the scanning application and direct on-site measurements with traditional methods. Point selection in Scaniverse is not an easy matter: the user must be careful in double-checking the correct position of the selected points. Checks on several chamber side measurements showed that the difference between LIDAR measures and traditional ones is within few centimetres, that is, accurate enough to satisfy typical caving requirements. An advantage in the iPhone LIDAR technology is in the chance to easily obtain measurements in inaccessible areas. Figure 7 is a plan view of the second chamber in a two-chamber cistern. If it is not possible to enter and climb down into the chamber, the surveyor can look into the chamber from the connection passage (at the bottom in fig. 7). Both the far wall width (3.43 m) and height (5.33 m) can be measured only by triangulation methods or directly on the 3D model. However, in order to get a good quality result, the surveyor should apply several procedural expedients, so as to avoid or mitigate the above-mentioned issues: 1. maximum range: where cavity length or width are an issue, a proper path planning can help in scanning excessively long and wide areas. If the issue is in cavity height, a sturdy stick can be employed; 2. unsurveyed areas: a careful device path planning is mandatory, based on cavity morphology and on past experience, so as to cover all hidden or unfavourably-positioned areas; 3. lighting: in order to get a fairly uniform surface lighting, a device-mounted illuminator must be used, while Fig. 7 – Cistern measurements.
324 The Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy) Flavian Amphitheatre cisterns: a basic experience in 3D modelling with LIDAR the surveyor helmet illuminator must be switched off; furthermore, the device should move at a fairly uniform distance from the surveyed surface; 4. uniform rendering: again, the device should move at a fairly uniform distance from the surveyed surface and with a uniform speed; jumps, trips and sudden moves should be avoided; as far as possible, the scanning device should be moved perpendicularly to the scanned surface; the use of a camera gimbal or stabilizer should be considered; 5. overlapping: a careful path planning should avoid duplicate scans of the same area; furthermore, a suspendresume sequence should care not to move the device position; possibly, overlapping areas can be cropped out in post-processing; 6. green areas: vegetation rendering performs better in Detail processing mode; this means a separate scan should be planned, to be connected in post-processing. Acknowledgements Research in the Flavian Amphitheatre in Pozzuoli was possible thanks to the authorizations and the support ensured by the Pozzuoli officer of the Naples Superintendency for Archaeological Heritage (Ms. Costanza Gialanella) and subsequently by the Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Park officers (Director Mr. Fabio Pagano, Ms. Annalisa Manna, Ms. Maria Laura Iadanza). The Cocceius Association members operational support is invaluable: Adele Delicato, Maurizio Fagnola, Giovanni Grasso, Raffaella Lamagna, Ruggero Morichi, Elena Rognoni, Annalisa Virgili. Supporting member David Millar proofread the text. The Hans Brand company in Milan lent the portable gas analyser used to check the air safety in the Amphitheatre confined spaces. Bibliography Bonucci C., 1839, I Reali scavamenti nell’Anfiteatro di Pozzuoli, Poliorama Pittoresco, 4: pp. 65-66. Napoli. Dubois C., 1907, Pouzzoles antique (historie et topografie). Fontemoing, Paris, 452 pages. Fiorini A., 2022, Scansioni dinamiche in archeologia dell’architettura: test e valutazioni metriche del sensore LIDAR di Apple. Archeologia e calcolatori, 33 (1): pp. 35-54. doi 10.19282/ac.33.1.2022.03. Maiuri A., 1955, Studi e ricerche sull’anfiteatro flavio puteolano, Macchiaroli, Napoli, 155 pages.
325 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Sapienza, Università di Roma, Dipartimento di Storia disegno e restauro dell’architettura, Rome, Italy 2 Museo Diocesiano di Albano Laziale, Rome, Italy * Reference author: [email protected] Notes on the survey of the Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano Laziale (Rome, Italy) Marco Carpiceci1 , Fabio Colonnese1,*, Roberto Libera2 Abstract The underground complex of the Catacomb of San Senatore is located at the fifteenth mile of the Via Appia, where the territory of Albano Laziale borders with that of Ariccia. The entrance opens in that section where the Regina Viarum, after crossing the historic centre of Albano and passing by the curious republican monument known as the Tomb of the Horatii and the Curiatii and the nearby monumental complex and cemetery of Santa Maria della Stella, begins a steep descent to the bottom of the valley. The Christian complex dates back to the 4th century AD at least, as confirmed by important surviving iconographic evidence. Presumed to be connected with other catacombs under the centre of Albano, it has been known in written sources for several centuries. After the medieval and Renaissance oblivion, it was rediscovered the second half of 17th century and reconnected to a monumental system that attracted the travellers of the Grand Tour. Such an urban system kept on growing up to XIX century, thanks to the cemetery built by the church in 1833 and used up to the cholera epidemic of 1867. Although studied and mapped between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the catacomb was in a state of semi-abandonment for decades. Only a collapse, at the end of the 1980s, convinced the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, then directed by the illustrious Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, of the need to carry out some excavation and consolidation interventions which determined the current state of the monumental site. At the entrance, a steep linear staircase leads into the basement of the current convent of the Discalced Carmelites, annexed to the church, where the ancient nucleus of the catacombs is located. From here, a series of underground perimeter rooms branch off. Some are excavated, some covered by the earth that came out of the collapses, some interrupted by recent consolidation walls of the buildings above. This paper presents the early results a historical research and architectural survey, the first carried out through digital technologies, which is part of a PRIN entitled Le strada di Pietra and dedicated to the ancient historical routes. It concerns not only with providing a faithful cartography of very irregular spaces in order to relate it to the overlying and neighbouring structures and to plan an organic project of enhancement, but also to develop an integrated method of documentation of the remaining pictorial fragments. Keywords: Albano Laziale, San Senatore, catacomb, architectural survey, rock-cut architecture. Introduction Along its sides, the Regina Viarum Via Appia collects an incredible number of signs of the past, often of extraordinary quality. Today, some of its sections are often defined as a sort of open-air gallery, a widespread museum of Roman art that blends with the typical landscapes of central-southern Italy. Unfortunately, many of the ancient sepulchers that marked the route have now disappeared or been reduced to unrecognizable and mute ruins; conversely, others were intentionally ‘invisible’ and silent since their creation. This is the case of the ancient and little-known Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano. It is near the Republican Roman monument known as the Tomb of the Horatii and the Curiatii and beneath the complex formed by the church of Santa Maria della Stella, its cemetery and the attached Convent of the Carmelites (fig. 1). The Catacomb constitute the link between Paganism and Christianity in a place characterized by the funerary destination in different forms for almost 2000 years. The historical research and the survey of the Catacomb presented here is part of the Research Project of National Interest (PRIN) entitled Le Strade di Pietra and aimed at analyzing the quality of ancient stone road surfaces and at prefiguring a possible enhancement compatible with their characteristics and their conservation, of course. From the point of view of the architects, studying the streets means above all studying the architectures that stood by, along and over them – or, like this case, beneath them. Often, the architecture is the main reason for the construction or the use of a street and, at the same time, influence the perception along it. The survey of the Catacomb – her you find only the early results of this activity – is therefore conceived in direct relationship with the Via Appia and what is on the surface, i.e. the Republican Tomb, the original layout of the road itself the church and the convent built behind it. In this operational context, the particular morphology of the land – the site is located along a section of the Appia that descends to the valley before going up again to the nearby Ariccia – adds elements of complexity both in the survey operations and in the
326 Notes on the survey of the Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano Laziale (Rome, Italy) perceptive considerations. Added to these difficulties, the mazy plan and the poor lighting of the hypogeum, guaranteed only by a network of light points, has suggested the use of a laser-scanner in combination with spherical references. At the same time, the Catacomb of San Senatore has specific characteristics, in some ways unique, which make it worthy of an in-depth study to be extended both to the remarkable wall paintings (Marinone 1992), the object of an integrated survey through photography, and to the atmosphere of the underground environments. This study, which is still ongoing, is planned to be conducted above all in the perspective of the future enhancement of the hypogeum – the same could be said of the Tomb above and the garden around it – which requires their complete exploration, for the consolidation of the parts today considered unsafe; the systemization with the museum circuit of the artistic centers of the area and a more systematic opening to the public as part of a cultural and spatial experience planned in detail. A brief history The Appia is presumed to have been built in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius (Livio IX, 29) following an older road that led from Rome to the Colli Albani. Fig. 1 – Aerial photo of the area of Santa Maria della Stella at Albano, with the section under investigation highlighted. The drawing shows the corresponding part in the plan projection after the points cloud: 1. Via Appia; 2. Entrance to Catacomb of San Senatore; 3. Church of Santa Maria della Stella; 4. Convent of Discalced Carmelites; 5. Tomb of the Horatii and the Curiatii (image by M. Carpiceci).
327 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Livy (Livio VII, 39) reminds that 30 years before its construction, some soldiers in revolt had stationed in Campania and then had marched towards Rome along the “way which is now called Appia”. While the paving was being carried out in in different phases, the Appia was equipped with stations and lodgings for changing horses. They were usually located between seven and eight miles away in the most inhabited places, while in the less populated areas, the stations were located every ten to twelve miles. In particular, by the 15th mile of Via Appia, funerary structures and burials of different shapes and types were built. This results from some excavations carried out between 1999 and 2002, which unearthed structures belonging to a villa from the Roman age, adjacent to the Catacomb. In the south-west sector of the villa, near the service areas, there are evidence of works for the creation of a funerary area, dating back to the late imperial age. Here the depositions were carried out in formae partly excavated in the tuff and partly covered with cement. These cavities are mentioned in ancient sources of Christian origin. Although there is no direct source to document this, it is today presumed that the area was also featuring a pozzolana quarry, which was later turned into a Christian cemetery, the Catacomb of San Senatore. The Geronimian Martyrology says that at the 15th mile of the Via Appia, in Albano, there were the remains of the saints Secondo, Carpoforo, Vittorino and Severiano (Martyrologium Hieronymianum p. 102), who are commemorated on 8 August. Another source is De locis Sanctis Martyrum quae sunt foris civitatis Romae, a reference text for Christian pilgrims of the end of the 7th century, which, at least in the present form, should be dated to the last years of Honorius I (625 - 638), or to beginning of the pontificate of Theodore I (642 - 649). It reports that “Through the same road [Appia] then one reaches the city of Alban, and, through the same city, the church of San Senatore, where the body of Perpetua and innumerable saints also rest, and great miracles happen”. It therefore seems that the pilgrims visited the suburban Christian cemetery of the Civitas Albana to pay homage to the remains of the martyrs and saints Senatore and Perpetua amongst the others. Added to this, the Vetus Martyrologium Romanum indicates the date of the anniversary of San Senatore and Albano as his place of deposition. The early news regarding the existence of the hypogeum of San Senatore, after the abandonment presumably occurred in the Middle Ages, dates back to 1671. Upon the casual discovery of some rooms of the catacombs, due to the construction works of the upper Carmelite convent, the basements were visited and described by the Carmelite Father Ludovico Perez de Castro. Then Marcantonio Boldetti explored the catacombs in 1720 while the historian Antonio Riccy (Riccy 1787) mentioned them in 1787. G. B. De Rossi visited it in 1843 and published his research on it in 1869. The latest searches are the result of the excavation campaign which took place under the direction of Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, on behalf of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, from 1989 to 1991. His publication (Fiocchi Nicolai 1992) is still the fundamental text for any research work on the catacomb. Before him, the geological conformation of the ancient pozzolana quarry was investigated by Gioacchino De Angelis D’Ossat (1942). He stated that the peperino bank visible on the entrance door to the catacomb, which he estimated about 5.30m-thick, was also the vault of the hypogeum. The material beneath that layer, which was the object of the extraction activity by the quarrymen, is of the incoherent sandy type. D’Ossat underlined that this last pozzolanic layer was suitable for use in the preparation of mortars and therefore the pre-cemetery cavity was certainly an arenario (a sand quarry). The layer of pozzolana that was extracted from the quarry was about three meters deep. The pozzolanic level was included between two banks of peperino: while the upper forms the vault of the catacomb, the lower forms a sort of floor of the ancient quarry. Added to this, the former presence of a pozzolana quarry is confirmed by the conformation of the structure itself: the galleries are very large, the vaults and the walls are rounded and develop along irregular and sinuous paths. Today, the Catacomb is accessible through a metal door in the stone wall along Via Appia. A long staircase leads down to the main room of the whole complex. The apse of the back wall of this regular excavated room, likely the result of the activity of the fossores, shows a painting with an Apollonian Christ surrounded by the saints Peter, Paul, Lawrence and a fourth unknown. He is depicted in the gesture of the Deesis (the presentation) which helps date the whole painting to the 4th century. This hall, which is also known as the “historical crypt”, is the result of the expansion of an original room of smaller size maybe to welcome the cultic activities related to the Christian cemetery. Both the richness of the frescoes, and the high chronology of some of them (the Byzantine-style fresco with Blessing Christ, the Mother of God and San Smaragdo would even date back to the 11th or 12th century), and a sort of small arcosolium tomb, at an angle between the back wall and the western wall, testify of the particular consideration of this sector of the cemetery. The dedication to San Salvatore is rather recent. During the works directed by Fiocchi Nicolai, the face of a young saint of high artistic quality came to light under a layer of the laying bed of the mosaic. The archaeologist interpreted it as the portrait of San Senatore (Fiocchi Nicolai 1992), whose remains were found inside the tomb in the shape of a small arcosolium. Furthermore, Fiocchi Nicolai proposed that this hall could be the Ecclesiam Sancti Senatoris mentioned in the De Locis. Surveying the Catacomb Architectural surveying is a relationship of knowledge between the detector and the detected, a continuous
328 Notes on the survey of the Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano Laziale (Rome, Italy) iteration of observing, understanding and deciding which involves establishing a path, sometimes retracing one’s steps, sometimes repeating operations in another way. No subject is the same as another and no subject appears the same as the previous time. Experience and analogy can facilitate some decisions but often one has to find the solution at the very moment and place. Surveying a catacomb is a particular, gradual experience, to be assimilated with ‘prudence’. It presents as a maze of cavities that are unknown and alien and that only slowly become familiar, indirectly rebuilding one’s feeling of knowledge, of ‘belonging to’. From the entrance, one descends a staircase for about 5m up to the ground of the first cave (fig. 2), which is connected to the hall (fig. 3) featured by the only remaining traces of wall painting (fig. 4). The sequence of scans has been planned according to the main exploratory path, then branching off from the hall, radially, to secondary routes, some annular, others mixtilinear, in order to obtain a (more or less) complete coverage of the catacomb. As known, stitching the scans requires one or more homologous points that can be automatically identified by the software or manually defined by the operator. The rocky surfaces generally do not provide this kind of recognizable elements. To bypass this problem, polystyrene spheres were used. The spherical shape is independent of the direction from which one look at it and therefore the center can always be geometrically determined. 4 points are enough to calculate its position, and the software, taking a congruous overabundant number of points, marks what statistically is closer to reality. It is therefore intuitive that when each pair of scans share the same two spheres (but three of them work even better), the coordinates of their centers and the vertical axis of the scanner (bubble) can reconstruct the position of each pair of stations and consequently of the entire subject (fig. 5). The scanner is a ‘polar’ instrument, therefore in complex topographic survey operations, such as a catacomb, one must follow closed or open polygonal paths. The closed ones provide a greater reliability as they compensate for the inevitable, albeit small, uncertainties present in every metric acquisition. The survey revealed that the catacomb develops in a rectangular area which is about 30m-wide and of 50-55m-long. The longitudinal axis starts from the entrance to the east and develops in a West/South West direction. The hall presents an average height of 2-2.5m. In the middle, the ceiling shows a vertical well with a quadrangular plan that formerly connected the hypogeum with the upper rooms. Currently, this sort of ‘chimney’ rises for about 9.20 m from the floor, 4m upper then the entrance level. The height is slightly lower than the ground floor of the convent and its external courtyard (fig. 6). Proceeding from the hall through the catacomb, one finds a west/south-west route that Fig. 2 – Perspective view after the points cloud related to the access staircase (image by M. Carpiceci).
329 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa Fig. 3 – Plan after the points cloud related to the hall (image by M. Carpiceci). Fig. 4 – Perspective view after the points cloud of a lateral room with wall paintings (image by M. Carpiceci).
330 Notes on the survey of the Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano Laziale (Rome, Italy) descends slightly to the farthest western rooms that are four meters below. Walking along the tunnels, one notice the variable compactness of the excavated mass, which has occasionally generated collapses and consequent closures of former paths. In this sense, they testify to the ancient transformation from latomia to catacomb (Palombi 2011). There are many posticce wall structures that contain the invasion of the earth along the corridors and just as numerous are the masonry works erected perhaps as foundations of the upper structures such as the Church of the Madonna della Stella and the conventual structures. There is also the possibility that some structures were built to support the vaults of caves that in the past have shown static problems. Some inaccessible structures show environments delimited by walls, as if they had been used as cellars or other. Certainly, they will be the subject of the next stage of this survey and representation project. At this moment, 41 stations were used to covFig. 6 – Composed longitudinal section on the access staircase and the vertical ‘chimney’ (image by M. Carpiceci). Fig. 5 – Perspective view after the points cloud of the hall: on the left the access staircase and at the bottom the areas with the presence of wall paintings (image by M. Carpiceci).
331 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa er all the accessible areas of the catacombs (fig. 7). Once the maximum coverage of the visible surfaces has been verified, the clouds will be merged. The subsequent elaboration will consist in elaborating a model by contour lines (isoipse) with an equidistance of 10cm, to represent the distribution of routes and rooms together with the actual three-dimensional morphology. Subsequently, the main vertical positions for which to repeat the operation of Multiple Equidistant Sections (EMS) will be determined (Carpiceci 2013; Carnevali, Carpiceci 2020). With regard to the painted surfaces, the approximately flat surfaces will be represented according to the average position, and therefore in true form. In the case of reproducible striped surfaces, it will perform the simple leveling according to the groove closest to the surface. In the case of spherical surfaces, representations will be made that can visualize the surface closest to the ‘compliant’ development (Carpiceci 2011, Carnevali-Carpiceci 2020). Bibliography Barbini P. M., Di Marco P., Spera L. M., 1989, Materiali dallo scavo di S. Senatore ad Albano, Documenta Albana 11 (II Serie), 1989: pp. 65-73. Bugliosi C., 1989. Itinerario storico archeologico artistico di Albano Laziale. Albano: Comune di Albano Laziale. Carnevali L., Carpiceci M., 2020. Sante e Santi in criptis. Architetture rupestri nell’Italia centro-meridionale. Roma 2020. Carpiceci M. 2011. Survey problems and representation of architectural painted surface, Thee International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science 38, 5, 2011. Carpiceci M. 2013. Cappadocia Laboratorio-Rilievo (2007-2015), In Filippa M., Conte A. (eds.), Patrimoni e Siti Unesco, memoria, misura e armonia. Gangemi, Roma, 2013, pp. 221-229. Caserta E., 2005. Albano Laziale (Roma): loc. S. Maria della Stella. Vita quotidiana e attività produttive, in Lazio e Sabina 3, Atti del Convegno, Roma 18-20 novembre 2004. Roma, pp.169-176. Chiarucci G., 1990. Le origini del Cristianesimo ad Albano e le catacombe di San Senatore. Albano: 1990. De Angelis D’Ossat G., 1942. Catacomba laziale di S. Senatore, Albano, Via Appia, in Notizie di Archeologia Storia ed Arte della Sezione di Velletri della R. Deputazione Romana di Storia Patria 5,1942: pp. 27-35. De Rossi G. B., 1869. Le catacombe di Albano. Appendice intorno ai monumenti cristiani di Boville Ariccia e Anzio, Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana 7 (serie I), 1869: pp. 65-80. De Rossi G. B., 1873. Carta topografica degli antichi monumenti cristiani nei territori Albano e Tuscolano, Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana, serie II, IV. Roma, 1873. Fig. 7 – Plan after the points cloud related to whole accessible hypogeum. On the left, the caves that are yet to be explored (image by M. Carpiceci).
332 Notes on the survey of the Catacomb of San Senatore at Albano Laziale (Rome, Italy) De Rossi G. B., Duchesne L., 1894. Martyrologium Hieronymianum, in Acta Sanctorum 82, 1894. Duchesne L. (ed.), 1886-1892., Liber Pontificalis, I. Paris. Fiocchi Nicolai V., 1992. Scavi nella catacomba di S. Senatore ad Albano Laziale, Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 68, 1992: pp. 7-70. Galieti A., 1948. Contributi alla storia della Diocesi Suburbicaria di Albano Laziale. Roma, 1948. Giorni F., 1842. Storia di Albano. Roma, 1842. Marinone, M., 1992. La decorazione pittorica della catacomba di Albano, Rivista dell’Istituto nazionale d’archeologia e storia dell’arte 19, 1972-73: pp. 103-138. Martorelli R., 2000. Dalla Civitas Albona al castellum Albanese: nascita ed evoluzione di una città nel Patrimonium. Roma, 2000. Palombi C., 2011. Le catacombe di S. Senatore, in Valenti M. (ed.), Colli Albani. Protagonisti e luoghi della ricerca archeologica nell’Ottocento. Monte Porzio Catone, 2011. Riccy A., 1798. Memorie storiche dell’antichissima città di Albalonga e dell’Albano moderno. Roma, 1798. Tito Livio, 1970. Storia di Roma (or. ab Urbe Condita libri). Zanichelli, Bologna, 1970. Tomassetti G., 1910-1926. La Campagna Romana, Antica, Medioevale e Moderna, II. Arnaldo Forni, Roma. Valentini R., Zucchetti G., 1942. Codice Topografico della città di Roma, II. Roma, 1942. Vistoli F., 2013. Saggio bibliografico sull’antica via Appia. Società Magna Grecia, Roma, 2013.
Cadastre, categories and typologies of artificial cavities: updates
Roberto Bixio, 1990 Message to Pluto. Icon of the full original painting. (Watercolour and golden foil, 29×29 cm)
335 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Mathera - Rivista trimestrale di storia e cultura del territorio * Reference author: Francesco Foschino, mobile +39 3475736470 - [email protected] The Modern-era technique of the semi-rupestrian architecture in the Matera area (Italy) Franco Dell’Aquila1 , Francesco Foschino1,*, Raffaele Paolicelli1 Abstract During our extensive surveys in the Matera area, we have encountered a significant number of artificial cavities characterized by an unusual type of architecture. The main common architectural feature is a completely built roof, and at the same time mostly dug-in-the-rock vertical walls. We may call this architecture “semi-rupestrian”, but we have to keep in mind that usually this word is used to define a completely different kind of structure. Indeed, in an usual semi-rupestrian architecture, there are two different areas: a completely rupestrian volume (a proper artificial cave), and in front of this, as a forepart, a completely built volume. The entire building itself is then called “semi rupestrian”, as it is composed of built and rupestrian elements, contiguous to each other. This will be quite clear if we take the roof into account: in the same room a completely built roof is followed by a rock ceiling, as we enter the cave-part of the structure. So the building as a whole is a semi-rupestrian architecture, but the single elements are either entirely built or entirely rupestrian. A completely different scenario is experienced in the semi-rupestrian structures we study in this essay. In all of our cases we’ll have the lower part of the structure directly obtained shaping the rock, creating in this way the vertical walls. Sometimes all the four walls, most of the time three out of the four walls. In some cases, a built roof is grounded directly on top of the rocky walls. More often, the rocky walls are extended with a built part, and then a subsequent built roof. Even though this is a preliminary study on an unbeaten field, we have already cataloged nearly 20 structures and we can define the most usual patterns. The usual shapes of our semi-rupestrian structures are rectangular. They are usually built on steep slopes of ravines or on the edges of quarries. All of them date from the XVII to the XIX century, a clear sign of an evolution of the typical medieval semi-rupestrian architecture where we have a proper building and a proper cave contiguous to each other. We might even call this a Modern-age semi rupestrian technique. In one case it is a church within the city of Matera limits, in all the other cases they are part of countryside villas or rural farm houses dedicated to the breeding of sheeps, cows, horses, goats, bees. A very similar technique is used for rural cisterns, very well known in the area as “cisterna a tetto” or roofed cistern, where the cistern itself is dug in the rock as a square pool, but the roof is built on top. This kind of cisterns also date back to the Modern age, and after our study, they can be thought as a specific type of our semi-rupestrian structure, shared with many other artificial cavities, as stables, storages, beehives, villas. We found a few other examples of this technique in the mediterranean area, but nobody so far focused a study just on them. A few cases can be the Cisternale di Vitignano and the church of San Basilio in Lentini. In Syria the famous Saint Simeon has got a built roof, and a few examples are in Cappadocia, where this technique is used for houses and storages, according to the Seljuk tradition. Keywords: Matera, semi-rupestrian architecture, Sassi of Matera. Introduction In the years 2020 and 2021, we have conducted extensive searches in the Matera area, in order to catalog every single historic structure, as we personally worked on the Municipality Record for historic structures (Catasto dei beni culturali del Comune di Matera). More than 1.000 historic sites have been visited, photographed, described and cataloged. They belonged to a very different array of sites: buildings, museums, churches, farm-houses, old factories, monuments, theaters and so on. Among them there were all Matera’s artificial cavities, both in the city and in the countryside (in the Municipality Record they are a few thousands, sometimes cataloged as a single unit, and sometimes grouped in rock-hewn settlements). This extensive and unprecedented work has given us the chance to determine the general aspects of our historical heritage, including its evolution and every little detail. Also all the man-made caves have been deeply studied, allowing us to detect standard practices and common architectural features. The Sassi of Matera Matera is worldwide famous for its rock-hewn settlements, rock churches and above all for its old districts called “Sassi”. Even though a common narrative portrays them as “prehistoric dwellings” and they are very often perceived as “natural caves”, the truth is that the caves of the famous Sassi are entirely manmade, and the vast majority of them were dug during the Middle age (Rota 2011, Fonseca Guadagno Demetrio 1998, Restucci 1990). Moreover, if we take into account the cubic meters of volume, the 18th and 19th centuries had a huge impact on existing man-made caves and on the excavation of new ones. There were two main goals for artificial cavities in Matera: firstly, they were proper quar-
336 The Modern-era technique of the semi-rupestrian architecture in the Matera area (Italy) ries during the excavation, providing blocks that were used as building material. In second place, most of them were dug to be used as storages for goods (wheat, wine, cheese, olive oil, beans) , productive facilities (tanneries for leather, olive oil mills, wool factories) or to breed animals (bees, goats, hens, sheeps). Two more functions can also be found: a religious one (rock churches or funerary chapels) or a residential one (cave-dwellings). The function of each cave was not a permanent one: it was extremely common for a cave to constantly change its function, and be converted from one usage to another. When this occurred, caves were usually adapted to their new usage through enlargements or heavy modifications of their shape. The Casalnuovo is a peripheral area of the Sassi, showing nearly a hundred caves, without any built forepart: these caves had been dug between the 16th and 18th century as wine cellars (Foschino 2020), exploiting the north orientation, that prevented the sun to enter into the caves, increasing the temperature (which would have damaged the wine). So in the Casalnuovo area we have an entirely rupestrian architecture: structures consist entirely of man-made caves. Indeed, this practice does not represent the standard in the Sassi area: by far the most common condition is a semi-rupestrian structure, where a built forepart and a man-made cave are created, simultaneously, one in front of each other. The traditional technique of the semirupestrian structure in Matera The old city of Matera (Sassi) is settled in soft limestone valleys and hills , overlooking a deep canyon, so the usual condition is a rocky slope. The first action was to dig a ledge (in italian: cengia), which means to remove a certain volume of rock from the slope, with the purpose of creating an horizontal space (in order to accommodate a street or a courtyard), and a perfectly vertical cliff (useful to start the excavation of man-made caves; Tab. 1). In case the area was flat, the ordinary solution included the digging of a trench, and then a cave was dug on the vertical cliff. Another option would have been to dig a wider area, as a small crater, connected through stairs to the planking area, and then all the caves were dug all around the cliffs of the small crater (Tab. 2). For further insight please refer to: Dell’Aquila and Messina 1998. At this point a building was then built in front and on top of the caves. In case the built floor was on the same level of the cave, the cave and the building created a single big volume, partially built and partially dug. Looking at it from outside, the cave is completely invisible, as it is hidden behind the building. Once the door is crossed, we’d be in an entirely built room, with a built ceiling on our heads. If we’d keep walking, at some point we would exit the building and enter the caves, in a continuous volume, nearly inadvertently. So two contiguous and continuous volumes stand next to each other, an entirely built one and an entirely dug one. According to the steepness of the slope, a second or a third floor might have been built on top. In this case, they could have been partially dug and partially built, exactly like the ground floor, or they might have been entirely built. In any case, each floor has got an independent entrance: we never encounter internal stairs. Each floor is reachable independently from the outside, sometimes the entrance doors are located on different sides of the structure, as indicated on the tables, where the arrows point to the entrances. This is the ubiquitous technique visible in the Sassi area of Matera, and it is the most common to be found also in the surrounding area and in the neighboring region of Apulia (in rupestrian settings). Indeed, this is considered an usual semi-rupestrian architecture, where there are two different areas: an entirely rupestrian volume (a proper artificial cave), and in front of this, as a forepart, an entirely built volume. The Modern-era technique of the semirupestrian structures in Matera The traditional technique is also quite common in the countryside area, but quite surprisingly, it can not be defined as the standard practice, as it is in the city. Indeed, we noticed that many of the structures built on the countryside, on a limestone area, were not created as usual semi-rupestrian structures, where there is a building as a forepart of a cave. On the other hand, in all of these cases, the bottom half of the structure is dug out of the rock, and the top half of the structure is a regular building. So only the lower part of the structure was obtained from and into the slope, directly shaping the rock, in order to create the bottom part of the vertical walls. Usually three out of the four walls were obtained in this way, but in many cases this number may differ (rarely all the four walls, sometimes only two of them, never only one). This worked as the base for the built walls. On top of the rocky part, indeed, then a proper wall was built in continuity with the rock part, and eventually an entirely built roof. In some cases, a built roof is grounded directly on top of the rocky walls. More often, as said, the rocky walls are extended with a built part, and then a subsequent built roof. In all of these cases the roof is always built, so it is a completely different case than the traditional semi-rupestrian technique. Please refer to Tabs 1 and 2 for further insight. If we take into account a traditional semi rupestrian structure, if we remove the building out of it, for the sake of this example, we would be left with a proper man-made cave. In these examples, if we remove the built part, we would be left with the bottom half of it, which is just the lower parts of the walls. Luckily we have found a few cases where the structure had not been completed, where no built part was added, which can be very helpful to fully understand this technique. If we look at the two cases we show here (on a gentle slope and on the flat, fig. 1) it is possible to see the preparatory work on the rock, result-
337 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa ing in the lower part of the future walls. As it is clear, the rock had been shaped in order to accommodate a built extension (which, in these cases, never occurred). We refer to it as “Modern-era technique” as all cases we have found in Matera can be chronologically determined in a time range between 1710 and 1880. No semi-rupestrian structure before 1710 was created in this way. Moreover, this appears to be the standard technique in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Modern-era rock-hewn architecture in Matera As we stated in the introduction, a huge volume of man-made caves has been dug in the 18th and 19th centuries in Matera. The most common reason was to create productive facilities that could exploit the natural advantages of the caves, thanks to their microclimatic conditions. The improvements in the transTab. 1 – Graphic rendering by Sabrina Centonze.
338 The Modern-era technique of the semi-rupestrian architecture in the Matera area (Italy) portation and the trade had pushed entrepreneurs to create huge size caves, in order to store big quantities of goods, above all wine, cheese and ice (packed snow), which would have been traded out of the city. In the Sassi area many existing caves had been enlarged to accommodate wine barrels, or hundreds of cubic meters of ice (Paolicelli et al., 2020). In the countryside many rural structures were built (locally referred as masserie), in order to cultivate fields and to breed herds of cows, goats, sheep, bees (there a thriving trade for wool, cheese, meat, leather, wax, honey). If the standard rural medieval structure was a rockhewn settlement, on the contrary the standard Modern-era structure was a masseria, an organic group of Tab. 2 – Graphic rendering by Sabrina Centonze.
339 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa buildings with a wide range of functions: the residential part, the stables, the mills, the storages. In case a masseria was built on the limestone, the standard practice was to create a semi-rupestrian structure according to the new technique we just described, which unfolded differently according to the nature of the terrain, as we are now going to describe. Please keep in mind that in all cases these Modern-era structures always have a perfect rectangular shape, always an entirely built ceiling, and always a rural function: stables, storages, sheds. The Modern-era technique on a flat terrain On a flat terrain a proper quarry will be started, removing layers of rock. During the quarrying, some portions of rock will remain untouched, as these will be the perimeter walls of the building. The planking area will correspond to the first floor of the building, meanwhile the quarry level will be the ground floor. On the inside part of the rocky walls a recess was usually left, in order to accommodate the blocks of the vaulted ceiling (as visible in fig. 1). Once the quarrying was completed, using as building material part of the quarried blocks, the ceiling and the upper floor were built. In this scenario all the four walls of the ground floor are directly shaped into the rock, and for the entire height: no parts of the walls are built. The built part consists of the vaulted ceiling and of the upper floor. In one case, Casino Plasmati, the thick rocky walls had also been pierced, in order to accommodate a beehive (fig. 2). The Modern-era technique on a slope According to the traditional technique, at first a ledge was dug on the rock. According to the Modern-era technique, the work for the ledge actually becomes the preparatory work for the building itself, as the slope is directly shaped to accommodate the vertical walls. Contrary to what happens on the flat terrain, the four walls can not be entirely shaped into the rock. As we are on a slope, the rock part will have different heights: the side that goes deeper into the slope can be entirely made of rock, the most external one will be mostly built. Usually the entrance side is the most external one, so the facade of the building is partially -or even entirely- built. The back wall, on the opposite, is entirely shaped into the rock (fig. 3). The two side walls have an ever increasing amount of rock: close to the entrance they are mostly built, close to the back they are mostly dug into the rock. A vaulted ceiling is then built on top of this structure. The extension of the vault goes above the planking area, making room -sometimes- for a window on the top part of the back wall, very useful for ventilation or to use it as an access point for tools, goods, and straw. We have also found a few cases where the most external side is not the facade, but a side wall. For example, at Masseria del Cristo, the right side is entirely shaped into the rock; the left side is mostly built, and the front and the back sides are partially built, whose rock parts go decreasing from the right to the left sides (fig. 4). Other cases have been found and studied in the Matera areas: Masseria Ridola, Casino Passarelli, Casino Staffieri, Iazzo di San Bruno, Masseria San Francesco at Selva Venusio, Casino Plasmati, Casino Zagarella, Iazzo di Pantone, Casino Padula, Masseria Selva Teresa. Water cisterns This technique has also been applied to water cisterns. The usual medieval cisterns were entirely dug into the rock, and the shapes were usually Fig. 1 – Uncompleted structures of the Modern-era semirupestrian technique of Matera: on the left an example on a flat terrain (at Casino Plasmati) and on the right an example on a slope (not far from Casino Passarelli) Antros Archive.
340 The Modern-era technique of the semi-rupestrian architecture in the Matera area (Italy) Fig. 2 – Casino Plasmati: an example of a Modern-Era semi rupestrian structure on a flat terrain. The walls of the ground floor are entirely shaped out of the rock (beehives grids are visible on the wall) and an entirely built floor is grounded on top. Antros Archive. Fig. 3 – An example of the Modern-Era semi rupestrian structure on a slope, with the back wall entirely shaped into the rock. On the left Iazzo di San Bruno, outside. On the right, Masseria Selva Teresa, inside. Antros Archive.
341 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa wide at the bottom and more and more narrow to the top, giving just enough space for the well at the opening. Cisterns might have been shaped as a bell (or a pear), similar to a cone; or as trenches, wide at the bottom and narrow on the top. In the 18th and 19th centuries, simultaneously with the structures we are describing here, a new kind of cisterns were implemented, the cisterna a tetto, or roofed cisterns. In this case a proper pool is dug into the rock, with a rectangular plan (a parallelepiped in volume), and then an entirely built vaulted ceiling is overlaid on top (fig. 5). Also, the roofed cisterns Fig. 4 – Masseria del Cristo, an example of the Modern-Era semi rupestrian structure on a slope, with the side wall entirely shaped into the rock. The built part of the back wall partially collapsed, highlighting the mixed type of architecture. On the side walls the mangers have been dug into the rock. Antros Archive. Fig. 5 – Masseria Passarelli, a roofed cistern: external and internal view. Antros Archive.
342 The Modern-era technique of the semi-rupestrian architecture in the Matera area (Italy) date back to the exact same time frame of the rural structures: 18th and 19th centuries. A few cases of the same technique in other geographic areas This technique, where the bottom part is shaped into the rock and the top part is built, is typical of the Modern-era rural structures in the Matera area. As we looked for comparisons, we have found a few other cases in other areas of the world, where this technique has been used in previous ages. In the Apulia region, roofed water cistern are extremely common, and an old predecessor can be found: the Cisternale at Vitignano: in this case the roof is not vaulted, but it is flat, and the stone slabs are supported by pillars, purposely built into the pool. A similar example can be found in Sicily, in Lentini, where an enigmatic structure shows a bottom part entirely shaped into the rock, and built pillars supporting stone slab, but its date and purpose are still unknown, and they are usually referred as “Colonne di San Basilio” (fig. 6 left). In Syria, the famous Saint Simeon is partially dug into the rock (H. ajjār, ‘Abd Allāh., 2019), and the upper part is built on top of it, and the entire structure dates back to the 7th century (fig. 6 right). A few other examples can be seen in Cappadocia, where dwellings and storages sometimes have an entirely built ceiling, as in the seljuk tradition. Conclusions This pioneristic search explored a little known technique, refined in the Modern-era, with important predecessors in the wider mediterranean area. Further studies in the future might help to understand the actual extent of this technique, expand the comparisons of cases, and help to determine how and why the traditional semirupestrian technique was replaced by the Modern-era one. Bibliography Dell’Aquila F., Messina A., 1998, Chiese rupestri di Puglia e Basilicata, Adda Editore, Bari. Fonseca C.D, Guadagno G., Demetrio R., 1999, Matera, Laterza Editore, Bari-Roma. Foschino F., 2020, Alla conquista del freddo, guidata dalla luce: l’architettura delle cantine di Matera, Mathera Anno IV n13, pp.96- 113, Editore Antros, Matera. Ḥajjār, ʻAbd Allāh., 2019, The Church of St. Simeon the Stylite and Other Archaeological Sites in the Mountains of Simeon and Halaqa. Siria, Sidawi Printing House. Paolicelli R., Foschino F., Fontana A., 2020, Le monumentali neviere del Materano, Opera Ipogea 1-2/2020 pp.153-158, Società Speleologica Italiana, Bologna. Restucci A., 1997, Matera: i Sassi, Einaudi Editore, Torino. Rota L., 2011, Matera storia di una città, Giannatelli Editore, Matera (italian and english version) Fig. 6 – Example of the technique in other areas of the world: Colonne di San Basilio in Lentini on the left and Saint Simeon in Syria on the right. Ph. Franco Dell’Aquila.
343 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania – Osservatorio Etneo, Catania, Italy 2 Egeria Centro Ricerche Sotterranee, Rome, Italy 3 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy * Reference author: Paolo Madonia, mobile +39 3471450942 - [email protected] 20 Years of the project “The map of ancient underground aqueducts in Italy”, and future perspectives Paolo Madonia1,*, Carla Galeazzi2 , Carlo Germani2 , Mario Parise3 Abstract The Project “The Map of Ancient Underground Aqueducts in Italy”, was launched in 2003 by the Commission on Artificial Cavities of the Italian Speleological Society (SSI). The main aim of the project is the collection of all available data about underground waterworks in Italy, from both direct explorations and bibliographic information, in order to implement a detailed inventory of these unique works of historical and hydraulic engineering importance. All the data have been stored in digital spreadsheets implemented in Microsoft Excel, obeying to two spatial and temporal minimum requirements for considering a feature as suitable for its inclusion in the database: a minimum length of 400 m and a construction time no more recent than the XVIII Century CE. The last updates of the database were presented at the International Congress of Speleology in Artificial Cavities “Hypogea2015”, held in Rome on March 2015, with 140 records populating it. A retrospective analysis of the information stored in the database, and the recent advances in the information technology applied to the management and public dissemination of georeferenced data, have suggested the need of some changes to both the criteria for populating the database and its structure. The minimum length for inclusion in the database diminishes from 400 m to 200 m, with the aim of making this repository more dynamic and inclusive, also for hydraulic works of minor length but of particular significance or of local importance. The minimum age is postponed to the XIX Century CE, for including waterworks dating at the beginning of the technological era, but still constructed without the help of construction machineries. Information associated to waterworks will include hydraulic and water chemical data (if available), for reconsidering these features not only as a valuable cultural and environmental heritage, but as facility managements that could still work as sustainable water supply systems. Given the intrinsic geospatial nature of the descriptive attributes associated to these features, the data structure will be converted from an alphanumerical database to a geodatabase, implemented in the freeware Qgis, presently the most used open-source GIS software. Excel spreadsheets will be transformed in an attribute table associated to spatial entities representing the aqueducts, using topologies (points, lines, polygons) that will allow to perform effective spatial queries for getting information from the geodatabase. Particular care will be taken in the transformation from the graphic to the geographic space of maps and schemes associated to the datasheets. We will promote research agreements with universities and public research agencies, which will be involved under the general coordination of SSI in the implementation of the ancient underground aqueducts’ geodatabase and its dissemination to both stakeholders (cavers, academic and public administrations) and the general public. Keywords: Artificial cavities, cultural heritage, geodatabase, GIS, hydraulic works, water resources. Introduction Since ancient time, the availability of water has been mandatory for the settlement of stably inhabited areas. This prompted the National Commission on Artificial Cavities of the Italian Speleological Society (SSI), given the remarkable amount of ancient hydraulic works sited in Italy, to start in the year 2003 the Project “The Map of Ancient Underground Aqueducts in Italy”. Ancient aqueducts, often well preserved or still in operation nowadays, are not only valuable archaeological records of historical engineering techniques but, in some cases, they presently are, or could be in the next future after modest interventions, parts of state-ofthe-art water supply systems commonly used (Mays, 2010; Angelakis et al., 2016; Valipour et al., 2020). The main aims of the project consist in creating and feeding a detailed repository of the ancient aqueducts in Italy, and of their related literature, encouraging new studies and explorations, promoting their safeguard and possible sustainable exploitation. Due to the huge number of ancient hydraulic works in Italy, two minimum requirements were selected for the initial population of the database: a construction time not younger than the XVIII Century CE and an overall length not lower than 400 m. About the time requirement, three different periods were adopted for their classification: i) Greek – Roman age (until the 6th century CE); ii) Byzantine – Mediae-
344 20 Years of the project “The map of ancient underground aqueducts in Italy”, and future perspectives val age (7th – 14th century CE); iii) Renaissance – Modern age (15th – 18th century CE). A specific data sheet was created for resuming the main descriptive data of the classified ancient aqueducts, subdivided in three sections: 1) General data, including name, location, length, availability of plans and sections, present state of the structure and possible interventions needed for its re-use, reference bibliography; 2) Technical data, including hydro-geological information and the utilization history of the aqueducts; 3) Personal data, reporting contact details of the compiler. First results of the project were published in a special issue of the journal Opera Ipogea in 2007 (Parise, 2007a, 2007b), followed by several titles about advances of both repository and related literature list (Parise, 2009, 2012; Parise et al., 2009, 2013a, 2013b, 2015). In the present paper we first present the state of the art of the project, followed by indications about its future perspectives and advances, and related criticalities, with a specific focus on possible changes of the minimum requirements for introducing new items in the database, its transformation in a geodatabase implemented in a GIS environment, and some suggestions about the involvement of other entities in its future developments. State of the art of the project A critical revision of the database, previously containing about 140 entries (Parise et al., 2015), led to the withdrawal of some of them, which cannot be considered properly as aqueducts. Following the revision, the database contains now 123 records, about two third of which (82) located in central-southern Italy regions: 60 in Lazio, 12 in Apulia and 10 in Campania (fig. 1a). Fig. 1 – Bar chart illustrating the number of old aqueducts of Italy grouped for regions (a) and provinces (b) (graphics P. Madonia).
345 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa The other 41 are distributed all over Italy, with only one region (Calabria) where no features are reported. Two aqueducts are trans-regional: the Montemilone aqueduct, running through Apulia and Basilicata, and the Libarna aqueduct, between Liguria and Piemonte. The subdivision by provinces is illustrated in fig. 1b: half of them is concentrated in the provinces of Roma (40), Viterbo (10), Latina (5) and Napoli (5). About lengths (fig. 2), most of the aqueducts exhibit values comprised between 1 and 20 km, 8 have lengths <400 m, the minimum requirement below which only features of particular interest are considered, and 7 are longer than 50 km, with one feature exceeding 100 km: the Claudio aqueduct in Campania, running through the provinces of Avellino and Napoli for 170 km. For 16 of them, no information about length is contained in the related forms. About 80% of the classified ancient water works date at the Greek−Roman period (fig.3), followed by aqueducts built during the Renaissance−Modern age (about 17%); only few features (1.6%) were realized in the intermediate Byzantine−Mediaeval period. As expected, information about the lithological nature of both the water sources feeding the aqueducts and the terrains they cross is much more fragmentary and incomplete (fig. 4): less than a half of the entries contains this information. Volcanic rocks and carbonates, here including limestones, dolostones and travertines, show similar percentages and include the majority of the aqueducts (50−60%). Alluvial deposits, conglomerates, sandstones and flysch characterize the rest of the features. It is worth to note the difference in the percentages of mixed lithologies between source areas and paths, equal to 2.4 and 8.9, respectively: while Fig. 2 – Histogram reporting the frequency of old aqueducts of Italy for length classes; n.d. is not determined (graphics P. Madonia). Fig. 3 – Pie chart reporting the relative distribution (%) for ages of the old aqueducts of Italy; n.d. is not determined (graphics P. Madonia).
346 20 Years of the project “The map of ancient underground aqueducts in Italy”, and future perspectives source areas have a limited areal extension, the higher is the overall length of an aqueduct, the higher the probability of crossing terrains of different geological nature, thus justifying the observed differences in the reported percentages. Future perspectives and criticalities The analysis of the data presently contained in the old aqueducts database of Italy suggests some changes to be possibly introduced, for both maintaining the vitality of the project and valorising the intrinsic geographic nature of most of the information here contained. Although in an initial phase it was necessary introducing a minimum length (400 m) for listing an aqueduct in the database, due to the huge number of these features present in Italy, this requirement could represent now, in a more mature phase, an obstacle for its future development. A possible solution is halving the length requirement, from 400 to 200 m, but leaving researchers and explorers of the underground environment free of proposing the cataloguing of any features of particular interest, aside of its length. Special cases could encompass aqueducts located in regions scarcely represented in the database, built adopting peculiar construction techniques, located in particular geological settings, of high historic relevance or presently exploited for important anthropic uses. Another change could concern the minimum age requirements: it could be expanded to the 1930s, providing that they were built without the use of construction machineries. A 4th age could be thus introduced, referred as the “Early technological age (1800−1939)”. Last but not least, the transformation from a classical alphanumeric database to a geodatabase represents the main possible evolution of the project. Given the intrinsic geospatial nature of the descriptive attributes associated to these features, the data structure could be converted to a geodatabase in the ESRI shapefile format, considered as a standard for geographical information accepted worldwide. Such a data structure should be managed with a freeware like Qgis, presently the most used open-source GIS software. Excel spreadsheets will be transformed in an attribute table associated to spatial entities representing the aqueducts, using topologies (points, lines, polygons) that will allow to perform effective spatial queries for getting information from the geodatabase, as well as generating new information by overlying the old aqueducts’ maps with other thematic cartographic products. Looking at the informative content of the old aqueduct records, only few fields, as name or age, are not of geospatial nature. All the others, as regions, provinces, cities related to a waterwork, as well as its length, geological nature, and so on, can be borrowed from other maps or auto calculated within the digitizing Fig. 4 – Pie charts illustrating the relative distribution (%) for lithological character of the source areas (a) and paths (b) of the old aqueducts of Italy; n.d. is not determined (graphics P. Madonia).
347 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa process (length). A basic example is the distribution for regions and provinces, given by classical graphs in fig. 1, and here reproposed as thematic maps based on the ISTAT shapefiles containing their boundaries (fig. 5). It is evident that associating a modulus (the number of features) to its geographic location and shape (georeferenced polygons representing regions and provinces) improves the readability and the informative content itself. It is worth to note the effect of the spatial resolution on data representation: if the number of aqueducts is associated to region boundaries, the whole Italy, with the exception of Calabria, seems hosting these features (fig. 5a). If the same parameter is associated to more spatially resolved entities, as province boundaries (fig. 5b), the depicted scenery reveals the clustering of features in preferential areas, driven by factors as local orographic and geological settings, geographic distribution of ancient settlements or, more simply, the location of active artificial cavity research groups, which preferentially explore sites close to them. Particular care should be taken in the transformation from the graphic to the geographic space of maps and schemes associated to the datasheets, because georeferencing errors will result in critical issues when overlying with other thematic maps, from which erroneous information will be retrieved. Finally, research agreements with universities and public research agencies, which could be involved under the general coordination of SSI, could boost the implementation of the ancient underground aqueducts’ geodatabase and its dissemination to both specific stakeholders (cavers, academic and public administrations) and the general public. Bibliography Angelakis A.N., Mays L.W., De Feo G., Salgot M., Laureano P., Drusiani R., 2016, Topics and Challenges on Water History. In Global Trends & Challenges in Water Science, Research and Management: A compendium of hot topics and features from IWA Specialist Groups, 2nd ed.; Li, H., Ed.; IWA: London, UK, pp. 128-132. Mays L.W., 2010, Lessons from the ancients on water resources sustainability. In Ancient Water Technologies; Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 217-239. Parise M., 2007a, Il Progetto “La Carta degli Antichi Acquedotti Italiani”. Opera Ipogea, no. 1, pp. 3-16. Parise M. (Ed.), 2007b, Bibliografia di base. Opera Ipogea, no. 1, pp. 17-68. Fig. 5 – Maps illustrating t the number of old aqueducts of Italy grouped for regions (a) and provinces (b). Region and province boundaries are from the Italian Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) (graphics P. Madonia).
348 20 Years of the project “The map of ancient underground aqueducts in Italy”, and future perspectives Parise M., 2009, Distribution and characteristics of ancient underground aqueducts in Italy. Proc. Int. Water Association Specialty Conf., 2nd Int. Symp. on “Water and wastewater technologies in ancient civilizations”, Bari, 28-30 May 2009. Parise M., Bixio R., Burri E., Caloi V., Del Prete S., Galeazzi C., Germani C., Guglia P., Meneghini M., Sammarco M., 2009, The map of ancient underground aqueducts: a nation-wide project by the Italian Speleological Society. Proceedings 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville (Texas, USA), 19-26 July 2009, vol. 3, 2027-2032. Parise M., 2012, Underground aqueducts: a first preliminary bibliography around the world. Proc. 3rd IWA Special. Conf. on “Water and Wastewater Technologies in Ancient Civilizations”, Istanbul, 22-24 March 2012, pp. 65-72. Parise M., Galeazzi C., Germani C., Sammarco M., 2013a, Hydraulic works: the Map of the Ancient Underground Aqueducts. In: Parise M. (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Workshop on Speleology in Artificial Cavities “Classification of the typologies of artificial cavities in the world”. Torino (Italy), May 18-20, 2012, Opera Ipogea, n. 1, pp. 21-28. Parise M., Del Prete S., Galeazzi C., Germani C., Sammarco M., 2013b, The map of ancient underground aqueducts. Speleologia, vol. 68, pp. 48-49. Parise M., Galeazzi C., Germani C., Bixio R., Del Prete S., Sammarco M., 2015, The map of ancient underground aqueducts in italy: updating of the project, and future perspectives. In: Parise M., Galeazzi C., Bixio R., Germani C. (Eds.), Hypogea 2015 - Proceedings of International Congress of Speleology in Artificial Cavities - Rome, March 11/17 2015, pp. 235-243. Valipour M., Abdelkader T.A., Antoniou G.P., Sala R., Parise M., Salgot M., Sanaan Bensi N., Angelakis A.N., 2020, Sustainability of underground hydro-technologies: from ancient to modern times and toward the future. Sustainability, 12, 8983; doi:10.3390/ su12218983.
349 Fourth IC of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Hypogea 2023 - Genoa 1 Centro Studi Sotterranei - Genoa (Italy) 2 Obruk Cave Research Group, İstanbul (Turkey) * Reference author: Roberto Bixio - [email protected] Rock-cut dovecotes in Cappadocia (Turkey): elements in comparison Andrea Bixio, Roberto Bixio1,*, Andrea De Pascale1 , Ali Yamaç2 Abstract Cappadocia, in Central Turkey, is a region particularly rich in structures excavated by man, especially in Byzantine times, but also earlier, then reworked in Seljuk and Ottoman times. One of most evident elements consists of thousands of rock-cut dovecotes, widely distributed in the peculiar tabular rocky outcrops and in the pinnacles formed by soft tuff. According to the sources found until now, they were mainly used for collecting the dung useful for fertilizing the plots cultivated in the valleys. Since the early 20th century, with the advent of chemical fertilizers, the dovecotes have been almost completely abandoned. Some are still intact, identified by small entrances and flight windows of various shapes, overlooking from high rock faces, on purpose smoothed, often whitewashed and decorated. Others were cut by the collapse of the external walls and show overlapping rows of niches for nesting carved in the internal rooms; most of them have arched or quadrangular mouths, rarely triangular, with perches of various type. They were reachable by means of portable ladders and/or footholds carved into the vertical rock faces, not easy to access: for this reason the collection of dung was carried out only once or twice a year, sometimes every two years. A number of dovecotes comes from the modification of pre-existing rock-cut structures, often churches, abandoned with the arrival of the Seljuks in the 11th century, and then of the Ottomans, but also in relatively recent times, at the beginning of the 20th century. In this case, the entrances at ground level, walled with stones, and partially removed and reset only once a year, were much less risky for operators. A peculiar type of dovecote, consisting of underground chambers surmounted by masonry towers, from the top of which the birds entered, has been documented in a single valley near Kayseri, the ancient Caesarea, capital of the Roman province of Cappadocia, around the 1st century AD. Keywords: Cappadocia, artificial cavities, dovecotes, pigeonholes. The rock-cut settlements of Cappadocia It is well known that Cappadocia (central Turkey) is a vast area characterized by the pervasive presence of ancient anthropogenic cavities excavated over a long period of time and with a wide variety of types: rock-cut settlements, dwellings, workspaces, shelters, churches, burials, water tunnels, and so on (fig. 1). Such structures were carved by man, mainly in Byzantine times, within thick volcanic deposits, typically composed of very soft rocks; the landscape consists of extensive undulating plains, surrounded by tabular elevations (mesas and buttes), strongly shaped by meteoric agents, and by collapses, in specific morphologies (canyons, cliffs, and badlands) that, till today, are evolving into their final forms as spectacular pinnacles, locally called peribacaları (figs. 2, 3). These morphologies alternate for more than 20,000 square kilometres, at an average altitude between 1000 and 1500 m a.s.l., from which hundreds of monogenic volcanic bodies rise, dominated by the cones of the Erciyes Dağı (3916 m) to the east, and the Hasan Dağı (3268 m) to the west. To date, hidden in the rocky masses, 364 rock-cut settlements have been located in Cappadocia, of which at least 200 include structures that had the predominant or complementary function of underground shelters. The most articulated of them extend in the subsoil for kilometres and are equipped with simple, but effective multiple defence devices consisting of numerous millstone-doors, vertical and horizontal traps, aiming holes, and more. We point out that only a part of the documented sites corresponds to individual cavities; the majority consists of groups that, in addition to the aforementioned shelters, include dozens, if not hundreds of rooms for residential use and related service facilities, or rock buildings for worship (updated inventory 2022 after Bixio, Yamaç, Galeazzi, Parise, 2021). Suffice it to say that it is estimated that throughout Cappadocia there are remains of more than 1000 rockcut churches, dating between the 5th and 13th centuries AD (Ousterhout, 2017: 5/13). The rock-cut dovecotes One of the elements that most clearly make the landscape of this region unique, in addition to the suggestive natural morphologies mentioned above, are the