ArcheoFOSS 2022
PuntoZero, a web-app for the management, use and collect the archaeological data inside the public archives. The case of Ancona

Panel: Practice and Paradigms of Open Source Technologies for Archaeological Field Data.

Punto Zero is a Web application developed for the integrated management of archaeological data contained within the archives of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio, as a support tool to complement the normal protection activities of the institution.

This application allows the digitization and normalized cataloging of data, allowing, in a very simple and automated way, the management of the historical archive, the administrative one, the dossier sector, the excavation diaries, the drawings archive and the photographic archive relating to every single archaeological site.

In accordance with the public purpose of the data belonging to a peripheral body of the Ministry of Culture, the archiving forms of the archaeological sites have been structured according to the Site Card 3.0 model of the Italian Central Institute of the Catalog and Documentation (ICCD) to allow dialogue and the immediate transfer of data in XML format, to the SigecWeb platform.

This tool is designed to complement other already existing, to give a different reading of the data entered in the system with a purpose ranging from protection to research as well as digital cataloging of data. In fact, the system not only supports data archiving according to the ICCD specifications, but also provides tools to allow the very quick verification of the overlap of public works with the known archaeological heritage. These functionalities are relevant to preventive archaeology, and provide to the persons in charge body a consultation tool based on the geographical representation of the archaeological evidence, facilitating the delivery of further prescriptions.

The administration system is connected to a cartographic platform, which allows the visualization of data as points or browsing the plans of the different archaeological contexts. The web app is equipped with a multidatation and quota management system,which allows to associate the chronology, depth from the ground level of the evidence and the type of the element (wall, floor, channel). By compiling the full set of data, the floor plans will automatically be rendered in different textures according to their chronology and typology.

The Web App has been tested on the city of Ancona by archiving more than 12,000 files, relating to 159 sites. We are currently making the software adaptable to various needs, not bound to a specific case, and made it available in Open Source mode with a MIT license.

License

This text is released under Creative Commons Attribution No Derivates(CC-BY-ND) 4.0 Imternational license.