An Interdisciplinary Workflow for the Seismic Safety Assessment of Archaeological Assets: The Pietrabbondante’s Site (Italy)

Conservation, maintenance, and management of archaeological sites is a challenging task, especially when located in seismic areas. Therefore, the development of interdisciplinary approaches integrating engineering, architecture, archaeology, and geology appear essential. This study presents an enhanced interdisciplinary scan-to-structural workflow that incorporates, in addition to digital survey and structural analyses, site-specific soil characterization for the seismic input definition at surface. It proposes advancements in seismic accelerograms’ selection and verification criteria at different Limit States for rocking-dominated elements. The methodology is applied to the archaeological site of Pietrabbondante (Italy), focusing on a freestanding multi-drum rocking-dominated limestone column. The seismic input is then defined consistent with the expected rigid-block dynamic behavior. The structural response of the column is investigated through Distinct Element Method (DEM), accounting for contact mechanics, frictional behavior, and impact-driven energy dissipation. The results demonstrate the reliability of the proposed workflow for the seismic assessment of archaeological assets, ensuring consistency throughout the entire analytical chain, from digital scanning and site response analysis to structural response and safety assessment. The proposed methodology provides a physically consistent and conservation-oriented workflow capable of supporting seismic risk evaluation and decision-making for cultural heritage in earthquake-prone regions.