Processi formativi 2.0: modelli 3D per la decodificazione e la comunicazione della complessità funeraria. Il caso studio della necropoli della piena età del ferro del CUS-Piovego a Padova

The research entitled “Formative Processes 2.0: 3D Models for Decoding and Communicating Funerary Complexity. The Case Study of the Early Iron Age CUS-Piovego Necropolis in Padua” investigates three cremation burials from the Piovego necropolis (6th–4th centuries BCE), the easternmost pre-Roman funerary nucleus of Padua and a privileged vantage point for observing the social and cultural changes that marked the city’s transition from a proto-urban settlement to a fully urban configuration. The main goal was to define a methodology combining a “genetico–processuale” analytical approach with advanced virtual modeling tools. By integrating autoptic data, excavation diaries, and 2D documentation within a 3D environment, the study reconstructed and analyzed both large-scale depositional patterns and more detailed micro- and meso-scale relationships. This approach revealed spatial connections among individual objects, artifact clusters, and funerary structures – such as pits and dolia –highlighting configurations and depositional logics scarcely discernible through traditional methods. Far from a static representation, the 3D modeling enabled diachronic tracking of transformations affecting both artifacts and structures, isolating and dynamically simulating events such as collapses, accidental falls, or gradual displacements. The analysis brought to light shared ritual choices, recurrent funerary gestures, and deliberate anthropic manipulations – including object relocations, additions, and reworkings – indicative of reopening and modification of the burial deposits. The methodology developed here stands as a replicable tool for investigating the complexity of depositional processes, offering a research model that moves beyond mere visual reconstruction and opens new perspectives for exploring funerary rituality and social dynamics in the Iron Age.