WRITES is a contemporary archaeology project that aims to verify the feasibility of the archaeological analysis of contemporary traces, such as graffiti, writings, drawings, stickers, posters, scattered on walls, facades, shutters, doors, gates in the historic centre of Pisa.
Investigating the contemporary material trace in its various textures and representations as a foregone element of an ever-changing urban landscape. Investigating which opportunities the application of the archaeological methodology offers in the data recording and processing phases, concerning plentiful, spatially and temporally compressed, often ephemeral, sometimes illegible elements. Understanding the criticalities and limits that this type of approach entails. Define a thoughtful protocol and a workflow that responds to the problems encountered in these contexts.
These are the WRITES project’s objectives, within a broader methodological reflection on the contemporary material trace’s frontier of documentation. WRITES wants to go through all the stages of the archaeological data documentation, from the survey on the field to recognising the stratigraphic elements, up to the analysis and post-processing of the data.

Timeline:
November 2020: Definition of the traces cataloguing model and survey method

November 2020-March 2021: First survey campaign in S.Maria district. First survey campaign in S.Maria district. The activity involved students of the University of Pisa within the “Urban Survey Laboratory” of the MAPPALab.

March 2021 – ongoing: Digitization of data