Archaeological questions and geophysical solutions: ground‐penetrating radar and induced polarization investigations in Munigua, Spain

Abstract

AbstractUn accordance with archaeological programmes several geophysical investigation campaigns were conducted at the Roman site of Munigua (Province of Seville, Spain). First, building structures such as the city wall and production sites extra muro were investigated by means of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) measurements. A new method is presented, ZODIAC, which enables virtual or physical reconstruction of archaeological features in the ground; ZODIAC uses the original geophysical data and avoids the speculative aspect of previous reconstruction techniques. Second, two geophysical survey campaigns on Roman archaeo‐metallurgical remains were undertaken at Munigua in November 2003 and April 2005. Methods of complex resistivity were used for a non‐destructive survey on slag heaps. The slag heaps are well‐defined by induced polarization effects from the bedrock with a phase angle of more than 30 mrad. The extension and depth of the slag heaps are estimated using two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional images of resistivity ρ and phase angle φ. The results fulfilled all expectations and for the first time allow an estimation of the amount of processed metal in Munigua. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.