Abstract
The present essay is the result of a cooperative work between geophysicists and archaeologists in which the authors carried out an integrated geophysical prospecting in an archaeological site near Rome. This paper describes the methodology and the results of a geophysical survey carried out on Villa ai Cavallacci, an ancient roman building in Albano Laziale (Rome) discovered in the late seventies. It is often possible to obtain very important results planning a fast geophysical survey opportunely; within this framework (due to the fact that an archaeological excavation was planned in a short time), an integrated geophysical techniques survey (GPR, magnetic, and geoelectric tomography) has been carried out on the areas indicated by the archaeologists. Even if the described geophysical survey should be considered only a first step analysis, the data pointed out some very interesting features confirmed by the excavation.
Highlights
It is well known that, especially in archaeology, economic and human resources are scant
In the case of Villa ai Cavallacci sited in Albano Laziale (Rome) and reported in fig. 1, the authors carried out an acquisition test using different geophysical methods, focused to obtain a high-resolution data set
Geoelectrical tomography on archaeological sites indicates spatial differences in sediment moistures: the presence of features like architecture, activity areas and archaeological remains can be detected if the amount of moisture they retain is different from the surrounding sediment (Bernabini et al, 1988; Brizzolari et al, 1992; Pellerin and Wannamaker, 2005)
Summary
It is well known that, especially in archaeology, economic and human resources are scant. Geophysical surveying provides a relatively fast, non invasive and low cost tool that succeeds in obtaining different kinds of information on shallow subsurface features. The purpose of the geophysical survey is, to investigate the site response. In the case of Villa ai Cavallacci sited in Albano Laziale (Rome) and reported in fig. 1, the authors carried out an acquisition test using different geophysical methods, focused to obtain a high-resolution data set. An archaeological excavation (performed in September 2005) carried out according to what had been previously pointed out by geophysics, yielded many ruins. In particular an ancient room with a collapsed roof was revealed, confirming the importance of the cooperation between the expertises of both archaeology and geophysics
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