NEW TECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO THE DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF EARTHEN ARCHITECTURE: THE SPECIFIC CASE OF THE TARTESSIAN BUILDINGS OF THE CENTRAL GUADIANA VALLEY (SPAIN)

Abstract

Until now, the analysis of earthen architecture, characteristic of the Tartessian culture, has been overlooked by archaeological studies. With the aim of incorporating it into historical research as another social product, the result of the society that thinks and builds it, a research project was initiated with the title "Building Tartessos: constructive, spatial and territorial analysis of an architectural model in the central Guadiana valley." This project has three well-differentiated work phases whose development and applied methodology are described in the following pages. The purpose of this method is to identify the types of construction, to characterize the raw materials used and their catchment areas, the construction techniques employed, the types of analysis carried out for the mineralogical characterization of the materials, and to present the 3D technology applied to the documentation and registration of the buildings, from photogrammetry to the virtual reconstruction of the archaeological sites. The final objective is to streamline the process, the data collection and the documentation obtained from all of them, from both a purely scientific and informative perspective, improving the publication of scientific knowledge and education through the application of new methodologies. In order to carry out this process, the Tartessian buildings hidden beneath burial mounds characteristic of the central basin of the Guadiana, dating from the 5th century BC, have been selected. Specifically, we have the excavations being carried out in the area of Casas del Turuñuelo (Guareña, Badajoz), which to date is the best preserved building in the western area of the Mediterranean, and which will undoubtedly lead to a positive result from the project. The aim of the methodology that has been designed is that it can be applied to any architectural model and to any stage of history.