Measurements, geometries and proportions in roman archaeological architecture

Analysis and interpretation of elements of archaeological heritage is a painstaking activity. It also includes a wide range of interdisciplinary subjects and competences. Innovative tools which are constantly being developed make it possible for the researcher to adopt an integrative approach favorable to everyone involved in the whole process of documentation. Close collaboration of architects and archaeologists made it possible to understand the key elements of archaeological heritage based on considerations extracted from historical analysis and to have at disposal a large quantity of information gathered by taking advantage of the potentialities of technologically advanced tools. The significance of constructing digital models in the domain of archaeology is already a well-established idea and only reinforces the theoretical bases of survey and representation. Unlike archaeologists - whose research is mainly aimed at reconstructing the historical process and collocating artifacts within a precise frame of reference - architects investigate the form, reconstruct the process of designing, and study formal, proportional laws and spacial aggregations of various elements. The interrelation between the two disciplines opens up the possibility to achieve complete results as far as documentation, analysis and interpretation of the so called archaeological architecture are concerned [1]. On one hand, archaeologist can use explorable and measurable 2D and 3D high precision models, which realistically show surface qualities; on the other hand, architects can turn to advantage archaeologists' extensive knowledge to interpret correctly data in their historical and metric framework and to verify interpretative hypotheses. The objective of the present article is to verify whether the Temple of Divine Claudius in Rome was realized on the basis of a geometric matrix and a proportion module. Integrated survey carried out with high precision instruments for non-contact surveying yielded a possibility to conduct a correct geometric analysis of forms as well as an exact metrological study. The acquired data served to elaborate various typologies of models – two dimensional, three dimensional, geometric, architectural, texturized, thematic. These models are the starting point for interpreting and verifying geometric proportional hypotheses of the whole structure.