FDEM and ERT measurements for archaeological prospections at Nuraghe S'Urachi (West‐Central Sardinia)

Rita Deiana,Gian Piero Deidda,Alfonso Stiglitz,Peter Van Dommelen,Enrique Díes Cusí

doi:10.1002/arp.1838

Abstract

AbstractNuraghe S'Urachi is a monumental architectural complex in West Central Sardinia that was probably first built in the Bronze Age and remained occupied continuously into the early Roman Imperial period. It has been the object of systematic and large‐scale archaeological investigations in three different phases since 1948 when the first excavations revealed a complex building within a massive defensive wall and multiple towers. Intermittent fieldwork between the 1980s and 2005 subsequently showed that the central nuraghe might comprise up to five principal towers. In 2013, a new collaborative research project, sponsored by Brown University and the Municipality of San Vero Milis, brought together a multidisciplinary research project to investigate this important archaeological site. In this framework, multi‐frequency and multi‐coil electromagnetic measurements (FDEM) and Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were carried out in 2018, 2019, and 2020, over and close to the nuraghe towers, to gain a better understanding of the inner part of the main structure and to investigate the surrounding area that was intensively settled in Phoenician and Punic times. The preliminary results of the geophysical measurements provide new and interesting evidence that supports new hypotheses and suggests possible future archaeological and geophysical strategies to investigate the unexcavated part of the archaeological site of S'Urachi.

Highlights

Geophysical measurements have supported archaeological research for decades, allowing the collection, in a non-invasive way, of information on any possible buried structure in a specific site (Batayneh, 2011; Clark, 2000; R. Deiana, 2019; R. Deiana, Bonetto, et al, 2018; El-Qady et al, 2019; Kvamme, 2003; Schmidt, 2001; Wynn, 1986)
This paper presents the preliminary results of the combined use of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and frequency domain electromagnetic measurements (FDEM) as applied at Nuraghe S'Urachi, in central west Sardinia (Figure 1)
The results of the electrical resistivity tomography acquired at the base and on top of the nuraghe in 2018 and 2019 are presented respectively in Figures 10 and 11

Summary

Introduction

Geophysical measurements have supported archaeological research for decades, allowing the collection, in a non-invasive way, of information on any possible buried structure in a specific site (Batayneh, 2011; Clark, 2000; R. Deiana, 2019; R. Deiana, Bonetto, et al, 2018; El-Qady et al, 2019; Kvamme, 2003; Schmidt, 2001; Wynn, 1986). This paper presents the preliminary results of the combined use of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and frequency domain electromagnetic measurements (FDEM) as applied at Nuraghe S'Urachi, in central west Sardinia (Figure 1).

Results

Conclusion