Digitizing to Re-discover: the case study of the Roman City-Gate in Altinum, Italy

Graphic documentation in archaeology has always been a primary tool for scholars, used to record, publish and compare data. The vast majority of it, however, is still bi-dimensional, i.e. plans and sections, mostly because it was produced in the last century. Nowadays, sophisticated recording techniques are diffused and regularly utilized by researchers, and they have proven to be relevant to better record and understand an archaeological context. The case-study of the Roman citygate in Altinum is exemplary in this regard: a site that has been dug between 1972 and 1994 and has been exposed to the public since. Recently, a research project, carried out by Ca’ Foscari and Iuav Universities, aims to further re-think and investigate the architectural and urbanistic aspects of the Roman city using digital tools. Because of this, it was possible to conduct a 3D survey of the archaeological areas, including the one where the city-gate is located, and to ensure the preservation of the data in the future. Preliminary elaborations, aimed at comparing the legacy data available on this site with the point clouds from the digitization campaign, show the potential of these tools, even more when studying contexts that are already known and published.