Archeological places in vesuvian towns (Pompei-Ercolano)

Abstract

The Plinian eruption of the 79 AD thickly blanketed the archaeological sites of the Vesuvian area with pyroclastic deposits. Nowadays many archaeological sites have been brought to light and are accessible, others have been excavated and then covered over again and others have been identified but not brought to light (also if they are protected areas where excavation is restricted). The census of these sites is one of the aims of the scientific community and in particular of the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Pompei. In a joint project of the CSGSDA-CNR of Pisa and the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Pompei, a GIS is in progress. The areas considered are the municipalities of Pompei and Herculaneum. Detailed georeferenced maps of the archaelogic sites and the protected areas are inserted in a detailed GIS (nominal scale 1:2000) of natural and man-made features. The GIS enables us to carry out all the following basic operations: 1) the data file maintains accurate dimensions and locations without limits imposed by scale; therefore it is possible to magnify any view, zooming in on greater and greater detail; 2) to set up the transparent overlay, by combining all the layers of interest in a single thematic map; 3) storage of alphanumeric and geographic information which can be retrieved at the same time; 4) operation of topological query.