Reinterpreting the Urban Layout of the Greek City of Heloros (Sicily) Using Proximal Sensing and Data Fusion (20 min)

Presenters

Davide Tanasi, Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx), University of South Florida, Nicola Lercari, Institute for Digital Cultural Heritage Studies, LMU-Munich, Rosa Lanteri, Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico di Siracusa, Eloro, Villa del Tellaro e Akrai – Italy, Dario Calderone, Institute for Digital Cultural Heritage Studies, LMU-Munich, Paolino Trapani, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università di Catania – Italy,  and Stephan Hassam, Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx), University of South Florida

Abstract

The Greek city of Heloros lies on a low hill situated along Sicily’s Ionian shore near Syracuse. Archaeologists believe this city was the first subcolony of Syracuse. They recognized its strategic importance in the Greek colonization of southeastern Sicily through its harbor, access to the nearby Tellaro River, and impressive fortifications. Despite its long history and prowess, Heloros is understudied and virtually absent from any academic debates on Greek Sicily. Against this picture, between 2021 and 2023, in the context of the HADES project (Heloros Advanced Digital Exploration and Surveying), an ensemble of 3D digital imaging and geospatial analyses were employed, at the terrestrial and aerial level, to reassess the site in its entirety and its neighboring territory. The overarching research question driving HADES was to define the development of the site’s topography from its foundation in the late eighth century to the late Hellenistic/early Roman republic era when Heloros gradually disappeared from written sources. Through this approach, our team aims to produce new knowledge and increase public awareness about Heloros’s significance by employing a custom-made digital excavation methodology. This involves digitizing and verifying legacy data produced over a century of previous excavations and fusing them in a geographic information system with newly acquired 3D and geospatial documentation we collected at the site using global positioning, digital photogrammetry, drones, and terrestrial LiDAR. All the archaeological features of the city were 3D digitized and reinterpreted harnessing 3D visualization. The preliminary results of the HADES project offer new insights into Heloros’s history, including information about its pre-Greek occupation and revisions to the interpretation of important buildings and fortifications. Our research demonstrated that the archaeology of archaeology investigation we carried out at Heloros, when enriched by a digital excavation component, can generate new knowledge on archaeological sites without requiring new excavations.