Complessità e flessibilità del dato archeologico: Database Management e Metodo Fuzzy

The aim of this paper is to present a possible solution to one of the major methodological problems inherent the informatics treatment of archaeological data: the loss of their complexity and flexibility. Applying the Fuzzy Method to the archaeological research it is possible to preserve the uncertainty and subjectivity of archaeological attributions, whether typological, functional or chronological. Exceeding the limits of the Boolean binary method ("0" = "false"; "1" = "true") based on assigning data to predetermined categories, fuzzy logic is based on the assignment of decimal values range from "0" to "1", that are expression of intermediate stages of truth. In the paper is analyzed the fuzzy management of so-called "labels", focusing the attention on the concept of probability of belonging to a certain category. The case study of a computer tool is then presented, it was created to the management of small finds from the two Cretan sites of Phaistos and Haghia Triada, during the PhD in Cultural Heritage Studies (University of Catania). The Fuzzy Method was used in the database in cases of uncertainty in the typological, functional and chronological attributions. In particular in the management of "labels" the DB, using a relational structure, it is able to preserve every attribution occurred in the course of time and to calculate the fuzzy reliability coefficient of the assignment, improving the quality of the archaeological data treatment.