ArchaeoBIM. Theory, Processes and Digital Methodologies for the Lost Heritage

This handbook introduces a method, named ArchaeoBIM, which has its theoretical premises in archaeology, but it is equally rooted in the Building Information Modeling (BIM), a process intertwining very distant scientific disciplines and a powerful tool to manage and arrange heterogeneous data. In the first chapter (P. Moscati), the reader will be introduced into the world of digital archeology, which establishes the disciplinary boundaries, within which the development for new digital methodologies is set. After this overview, the following chapters address to the topics of Information Systems (M. Gaiani) and virtual archaeology (A. Gaucci), which cover the basics to understand the potentialities of BIM process in the field of ‘lost heritage’, particularly architectural artefacts that are completely or almost lost. Compared to a contemporary BIM workflow, the ArchaeoBIM follows an ‘opposite timeline’: hypothesis on reconstructions, validated by a robust approach in managing and gathering archaeological information, lead to a specific point in time where buildings and sites are virtually re-built, without any possible subjective interference. The last chapter (S. Garagnani) deals with this practical approach, illustrating typical uses for digital models and how they can be authored in order to produce scientific, accurate reconstructions of lost buildings and sites.