USING GEOMATICS TO UNDERSTAND AND VALORIZE HERITAGE, THREE DIFFERENT CONTEXTS OF STUDY: SYRIA, ITALY, AND FRANCE

Abstract

Such innovative meeting dedicated to Cultural Heritage: challenges, new perspectives, and technological innovation are ‘vital’ in order to exchange different experiences, needs, opportunities, and, above all, to find new approaches to preserve, at least, the memory of heritage for further generations. This paper includes some experiences accumulated throughout several topographic projects concerning Christianity during the Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Ages in northern Syria, in Liguria in Italy, and in Provence in France. Geospatial and Geomatics data have been used in these investigations, since 2007, thanks to the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology of Rome, the National Institute for Art History in Paris, Nino Lamboglia Foundation, and Marc de Montalembert Foundation. The Geospatial data highlighted for the first time, after about a century of research, much un- published data about Syrian monasteries. One of our goals was to understand what the exact differences are from all points of view: time, results, and economic costs between Agisoft Photoscan and MicMac. The models of the two applications are well made, but we noticed that the model created by MicMac software is excellent, despite being an open source application. In 2017, due to the positive geomathic results during the last three seasons of our excavations on the site of Capo Don, the first Multimedial Exhibition Space (SEM) of the town Riva Ligure was inaugurated, thanks to Comune of Riva Ligure, and all research team members guided by professor Philippe Pergola. Geomatics is a powerful tool not only for preserving memories, but it is ideal for dissemination heritage on the public levels, exactly like the role of archaeology.