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GEOMATIC APPLICATIONS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH: 
THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE PO VALLEY LANDSCAPE 
Paolo Ardissone (*), Fulvio Rinaudo (*) 
(*) Politecnico di Torino - Dipartimento di Georisorse e Territorio 
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino - Italy 
Tel.+39-011.564.7686/7659 
Email: paolo.ardissone@polito.it, fulvio.rinaudo@polito.it 
Commission V, WG V/5 
KEY WORDS: GIS, Remote Sensing, Archaeological Heritage Conservation, Archaeological research, Cultural sites 
ABSTRACT 
The aim of the project “Landscape heritage and resource management: an integrated information system of the Marchesato di 
Saluzzo”, funded by M.U.R.S.T. (Ministry of University, Scientific Research and Technology), is to verify geomatic technique 
integration inside the historical and archaeological studies on the Middle Ages in the Po Valle landscape, particularly on road 
networks and settlements dynamics between the X and XIV centuries. The ultimate objective of this research is to create an 
instrument, not only for historical and archaeological researchers, but also for the conservation and the valorisation of the Po Valley. 
The used method is based on the archives and bibliography analysis in order to extract all the available information on “material 
structures” such as castles, churches, settlements, roads in the Middle Ages. Subsequently, a field survey performed in order to locate 
these structures and to identify which ones have disappeared and which ones still remain has been carried out. All the preserved parts 
of the identified buildings have been analysed by means of archaeological methods. All the data have been recorded and organised in 
a database structure strictly integrated in a geographic information system in which also most of the available data of the Valle Po 
area (e.g. technical, thematic, and deriving from geological and botanical research) have been collected and stored following the 
same criteria. 
The merging of all the collected information allow one to perform complex queries and spatial analysis of the data and to underline 
interesting areas where it is possible to carry out deeper investigation in order to discover underground ruins. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The overall goal of this research project has been to study 
settlement development and the use of land underwent 
between X and XIV centuries in the Po Valley. In this period 
there was a transformation process of the settlement network. 
This process not only occurred in the Po Valley area, but also 
in many other north-west Italy areas. The phenomenon of the 
settlement distribution on the land and the territorial layout, is 
closely connected to actual morphological configuration. 
In the last three years our research work aimed to create a 
G.I.S. in order to integrate different thematic data such as 
those coming from archaeology, geology, botany and cultural 
anthropology on a multi-scale cartography (from 1:250.000 
to 1:1000) and high resolution satellite images. The geo- 
referencing of such various data will help a correct and 
affordable interpretation of the data themselves. 
This interdisciplinary approach is a successful way to 
understand and completely know how environmental 
exploitation of resources influences dynamic settlements in 
those centuries. It is very important, for this kind of research, 
to characterize the environmental context where settlements 
were located. The historical documentation and the merging 
of the different analysis conducted by the other involved 
specialists allowed the individuation of roads and structures 
not visible today but well documented in the past. The G.I.S. 
approach has allowed the hypothetical location of those 
objects in such a probable area where deeper investigations 
(photo-interpretation, multi-spectral analysis and geophysical 
investigation) can confirm or at least restrict the probable 
location area of the searched objects. 
The paper describes the standard functionalities implemented 
in the G.I.S. in order: 
■ to facilitate the collection of the multi-disciplinary 
information coming from the different studies 
performed by the specialists; 
■ to allow the merging of the acquired information; 
■ to perform spatial analysis and complex queries of 
the database. 
2. ARCHIVE AND BIBLIOGRAFY RESEARCH. 
DATABASE STRUCTURE DESIGN AND DATA 
INPUT 
The census of all the data concerning the existence and the 
characteristics of ancient villages, churches, castles and other 
evidence such as road networks, mines, quarries or 
metallurgical sites has been performed by a detailed reading 
of all the historical documentation. The area selected as the 
large studying area was the “Marchesato di Saluzzo” located 
in the southern part of the Piedmont region (North-West 
Italy). 
The first achieved results showed that a sub-area can be of 
particular interest in order to test a complete study: the Po 
Valley (see fig. 1). Two very particular collections of 
documents, the “cartario” of the Staffarda abbey and the 
“cartario” of the Rifreddo monastery have been completely 
analysed. This kind of collections are extremely important: 
they were written by the monks in order to control and 
manage the economic and religious life in the area. 
The papers are about investitures, deeds of gift, sales 
contracts or other kind of agreements, so, examining them, 
we can collect many information about landscape 
organization between XI and XIII century.