Archaeological Landscapes through GIS (Cost Surface Analysis) and Virtual Reality. A case study on the monastic site of Jure Vetere (Calabria – Italy)

Thanks to recent archaeological research in Jure Vetere, a monastic site was discovered, founded by the monk Gioacchino da Fiore (XIIth – XIIIth century). The multidisciplinary research, carried out by IBAM-CNR (excavations 2002-2005), put in evidence a remarkably sized ecclesiastical construction. This essay examines how the territory of Jure Vetere was exploited during the medieval era. The processed data by the GIS application, helps us recognize the main areas where the materials came from. The study, carried out on the GIS, is based on two steps of analysis: the first one was the cost surface analysis, used to determine principal exploitation territories nearby the site, the second one was a method which allows to determine the classification of land use, potentially exploitable. In addition the laboratory analysis of different soil samples has allowed us to evaluate the supportive capability of terrains and to make hypothesis about the reconstruction of the plant landscape around the medieval site. Finally, the virtual reconstruction of the ancient environment is based on the GIS procedure, which offer a 3D model of a medieval landscape in the XIIIth century.