Making a site otherwise inaccessible accessible: 3D laser scanner scanning of the Grotta dei Cervi di Porto Badisco in Otranto (Le)

Abstract

The present paper enriches the framework of knowledge about one of the most important Neolithic caves in Europe, the Grotta dei Cervi in Porto Badisco, about 8 km south of Otranto (Le) (Italy). Its location close to the bay of Porto Badisco, overlooking the Adriatic sea, has made it a safe landing place since prehistoric times, when the populations arrived from the most disparate places of the Mediterranean and when, as evidenced by archaeological research, propitiatory and initiation rites were held inside the cave complex, often referred to as the Sanctuary of Prehistory in the Mediterranean. Currently, thanks to the 3D laser scanner survey carried out in the cave, there is a complete documentation, a digital archive that collects a database from which it is possible to extrapolate data regarding the morphology of the cave complex and the spatial location, materials and deposits present. The combination of different types of relief made it possible to relate it with the external environment, with places that were once crossed by a river. Moreover, thanks to the mapping of the extraordinary corpus of pictograms, it is possible to digitally preserve the figurative apparatus, which has been and still is being studied by numerous scholars who in recent decades have tried to grasp its true symbolic meaning.