Geomatic Contributions to archaeological investigations.The case of Torrione of Pollenzo (Piedmont – Italy)

The monument known as “Torrione” of Pollenzo (Piedmont – Italy), presently located in the garden of the “Agenzia” pertaining to the reign of Carlo Alberto, is placed in an extra-urban area of the ancient Pollentia, a roman city of Tanaro valley, founded in the last first century B.C.. Formerly, near this monument, some soundings uncovered a domus and a cobblestone paved road ruins, but due to the uncertain conditions of some portions of the Torrione masonry, which was heavily injured by deeply rooted weed, a urgent restoration was needed. The masonry, kept in sight, have been cleaned out, strengthened and kept in safety. The geomatic side of deepening survey, applied both on the cleaned out masonry of Torrione and on the adjacent areas, has the role to provide a geometric contribution to catch up the settlement of the architectural structure. Several issues had to be considered during the survey planning: the complex settlement of Torrione ruins, the need of recording its features in the most comprehensive way, the requirement of comparison between the Torrione and other archaeological evidences, etc. So the survey campaign has been organized mixing different methodologies of data acquisition (Terrestrial Laser Scanning, digital photogrammetry, GIS modeling, relation with land by differently scaled maps), able to guarantee the capability to mutually compare all the emerged structures, spatially and because of typological features.