The paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary project related to the 3D documentation, dissemination and valorization of archeological sites.

The project has two goals: (i) to test a novel and economic pipeline for the acquisition of survey data; (ii) to promote and valorize archaelogical areas, among public and scientists, using the HBIM workflow.

The 3D survey of archeological sites is still an expensive and time-consuming task. In this project, we present a low-cost approach to 3D survey and compare it to a standard photogrammetry pipeline based on high-resolution photographs.

Our pipeline is based on a consumer-level hand-held RGB-D sensor as Microsoft Kinect. The quality of the acquired digitized raw 3D models is evaluated by comparing them to a photogrammetry-based reconstruction. Then, the acquired data is elaborated in a software BIM in order to create a semantically enriched model of the archaelogical site.

This method has been verified on the ruin of the archaelogical parc of Liternum (Campania, Italy), a roman Foro that includes a Capitolium, a theater, a Basilica and some others commercial spaces. Using a reflex camera for the photogrammetric survey, it is compared to the Kinect acquisition. In this way, we obtained a 3D model that is imported in a BIM software such as Autodesk Revit. The ruin’s model is used as a base for the hypotetical reconstruction of the site. Every element is modeled as a parametric object so the final model is enriched with several informations: geometric dimensions, material, text documents, CAAD reconstruction hypotheses, drawings, photos, etc.

These methods allow to derive documentation and geometrical information, understand the site, perform analyses, see interpretative processes, communicate historical information and valorize the heritage location.