Dal rilievo digitale all’evidenza archeologica: interpretare le tracce balistiche dell’assedio di Pompei | From Digital Survey to Archaeological Evidence: Interpreting Pompeii’s Siege Ballistic Traces

This paper investigates how reality-based surveys can move beyond digital documentation and become a critical infrastructure for archaeological interpretation. The case study concerns approximately 300 m of Pompeii’s northern fortifications, where circular cavities have traditionally been associated with Sulla’s siege of 89 BC. A multiscale workflow integrates terrestrial laser scanning, close-range photogrammetry, geometric visualisation and a georeferenced catalogue of the traces. The method distinguishes the reliability of each cavity from the observability of the wall sector in which it occurs, considering masonry texture, preservation, occlusions, acquisition quality and readable surface area. Morphometric analysis is applied only to sufficiently reliable cases, defining dimensional compatibility with stone projectiles without equating geometric similarity with weapon identification. The resulting model does not conceal uncertainty but makes the relations among acquired data, measurements, expert qualification and disciplinary hypotheses explicit and traceable. The contribution argues that the epistemological innovation of survey lies not in increasing visual realism, but in defining what can be observed, measured and interpreted, and under which conditions the evidence can be verified, compared and reused.