ABSTRACT

The epistemological development of Archaeology of buildings has been influenced since its very beginnings by the dialogue with Conservation-Restoration. Promoted by the archaeologists themselves, this interaction enters nevertheless the ongoing debate that involves the disciplines traditionally concerned with the modification of the urban pattern, and that has been particularly lively since 1960 because of the extended urban interventions that took place in many Italian towns, and especially in their historic centers. The starting point of the Archaeology-Restoration debate can be traced back to the participation of archaeologists in broad urban archaeological campaigns, which caused their involvement, until then very marginal, in the modification of the urban pattern, traditionally managed by architects, urban planners and restorers. Its theoretical core is however constituted by the recent developments of Medieval Archaeology, whose epistemological apparatus was significantly extended within the context of studies conducted on lost medieval villages. This work aims at revisiting the birth of Archaeology of buildings in Italy by analyzing different facets of the debate between archaeologists and restorers, from methodological issues, such as stratigraphic analysis and/or rilievo critico, and typological seriation of buildings and of their parts, to the intrinsic significance of the building itself as material evidence of the historical, social, economical, and cultural features of past societies. The applied methodology is based on Sociology of Sciences and its criteria to define a nascent specialty. Parole chiave/Key-words Archaeology of buildings, stratigraphic analysis, rilievo critico