Ground-Penetrating Radar and Photogrammetric Investigation on Prehistoric Tumuli at Parabita (Lecce, Italy) Performed with an Unconventional Use of the Position Markers

Raffaele Persico,Claudio Giardino,Emanuele Colica,Sebastiano D’Amico,Tiziana Zappatore

doi:10.3390/rs14051280

Raffaele Persico, Claudio Giardino + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14051280

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Abstract

In this contribution, we propose ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigation performed close and on some prehistoric tumuli, locally called “piccole specchie”, in the countryside around the town of Parabita (Lecce), within the Salento peninsula (southern Italy). In order to perform the GPR investigation on the tumuli, an unconventional method of data acquisition was exploited, involving, consequently, some non-conventional data processing steps. Photogrammetric survey was also performed, and 3D digital models of the prehistoric tumuli were created. The investigations have revealed some anomalies under two out of three investigated tumuli, which were interpreted as prehistoric tombs.

Highlights

Investigation on cultural heritage is one of most classical applicative fields of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) prospecting [1–7], to our knowledge, in southern Italy, there had been no previous GPR investigation on structures similar to the tumuli at hand, called piccole specchie
They allowed us to extract a high-precision topographic profile of the tumuli section scanned with the GPR
We have proposed a GPR exploration in a pre-historic site of culIn this In contribution, we have proposed a GPR

Summary

The Archaeological Context of the Tumuli

The proto-historic tumuli, belonging to the burial ground of Parabita–Madonna della. Grottella, are completely new to the archaeological studies. In Salento, the most frequent prehistoric funerary structures are dolmenic cist tombs built with slabs of local limestone, covered by heaps of irregular limestone stones with or without the addition of terrain. These tumuli are known, in archaeological literature, as specchie, or, more precisely, piccole (small) specchie. The tumuli of Parabita belong to the so-called small specchie These megalithic structures are documented in the area between Vanze and Acquarica (Lecce), where some of them were excavated in the first half of the last century [14,15]. The Parabita tumuli were probably the burial place of the Bronze Age communities that lived in adjacent areas, such as those living at the Cava Stefanelli settlement

Photogrammetric Survey and GPR Investigation

Results

Conclusions