Historical imprints and virtual representation issues in Mid-Byzantine Acrocorinth Castle

Abstract

Fortified architecture of medieval times in Greece is a research field with several challenges for the scholars such as the absent of plans and written sources. The current study investigates how digital documentation methods can contribute to the extraction of archaeological information from the actual material sources -the various building traces. This relation between survey and interpretation will be presented through the case of Acrocorinth Castle. The survey of a smaller area of the fortification between the 2nd and 3rd defence line of Acrocorinth was executed in order to create a three dimensional (3D) representation for the Middle-Byzantine Phase of the castle. The project was implicated in the frame of the creation of the web-platform ecastles.culture.gr for the promotion of fortified architecture in Peloponnese under the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (25th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, Argolid Ephorate of Antiquities). In the present study the surveying method and the step by step graphic reconstruction will be initially presented. Subsequently, it will be analysed how the digital survey led to the gradual modulation of the castle's historic form and how the scenarios of building phases' evolution were made.