The Role of the Field Architect in the Digital Age: Integrating Human and Electronic Recording at the Villa Arianna in Roman Stabiae

Abstract

ABSTRACT Digital recording technologies such as lidar and photogrammetry bring higher efficiency to archaeological recording, as well as the allure of automation. How do the promises of the digital age impact the role and methods of field architects, members of an archaeological team responsible for illustrating architectural finds? Between 2011 and 2022, University of Maryland field architects grappled with this question while recording the frescoed rooms of the Villa Arianna in Roman Stabiae. Like other Roman houses preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in a.d. 79, the villa contains many building phases, destruction deposits, and large spaces adorned with detailed frescoes. To accurately capture this diversity, the field team integrated several digital-assisted recording techniques with traditional manual approaches. While electronic technologies aided the architects in measuring the villa at multiple scales, we found that they could not replace the field architect’s capacity for granular first-hand observation, historical learning, and interpretation of archaeological signatures.