An application for cultural heritage in Erasmus Placement. Surveys and 3D cataloguing archaeological finds in Merida (Spain)

Man has always had the need to live with his past, with its places and its artefacts. The reconstructions, the economical changes, the urbanization and its speculations have devastated whole cities, changed the faces of their historical centers, changed the relationship between the new and the old. Also the millenarian 'rest' of the archaeological findings, and therefore the respect towards those ancient civilizations, has been troubled. Our continent is rich in masterpieces that the modern man are not able to protect and pass on to the future, it is commonplace to observe that the modern 'civilization' has cemented and suffocated the ancient city of Pompeii, or even worse, failed to protected it. Walking in the archaeological area of Paestum it can be noticed how just sixty years ago, no one had the slightest concern of fencing the amphitheatre and the Roman forum, or entire houses and shops, to lay a carpet of tar or simple to build constructions completely inferior compared to those majestic Greek temples. The engineers and the architects should be held responsible for this as based on their scientific and humanistic sensibility; they should bring together the man with his surroundings in the complete respects of the historical heritage. The interest in ancient began to change nearly three decades ago since it was realized that the "Cultural Heritage" is a major tourist attraction and, if properly managed and used, it can be an economical cornerstone. Today, thanks to survey and the 3D graphics, which provide powerful new tools, we are witnessing a new and real need for the conservation, cataloguing and enhancement as a way to revive our archaeological sites. As part of a major laboratory project, artefacts from the Roman period (I and II century b.C.), found in the Spanish city of Mérida, declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1993, were acquired with a 3D laser scanner VIVID 910, and then catalogued. Based on these brief comments we wanted to direct the work carried out under an Erasmus Placement Agreement with the Spanish company Gavle, towards the info-graphics detection and documentation of this archaeological heritage.