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Use of Integrated Geophysical Methods to Investigate a Coastal Archaeological Site: the Sant'Imbenia Roman Villa (Northern Sardinia, Italy)
Author(s) -
Testone Valeria,
Longo Vittorio,
Bottacchi Marta C.,
Mameli Paola
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
archaeological prospection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.785
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1099-0763
pISSN - 1075-2196
DOI - 10.1002/arp.1493
Subject(s) - ground penetrating radar , electrical resistivity tomography , archaeology , geophysical survey , excavation , shore , geology , geophysical prospecting , prospecting , geography , geophysics , radar , mining engineering , oceanography , electrical resistivity and conductivity , telecommunications , engineering , computer science , electrical engineering
We report here a multimethod geophysical investigation of the Sant'Imbenia Roman villa archaeological site in northern Sardinia (Italy). The main objective of this study is optimizing a non‐invasive approach to reconstruct rapidly the geometry of coastal sites. A hitherto unexplored area of approximately 700 m 2 , adjacent to excavations, was investigated using ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys. The Sant'Imbenia villa is close to the present‐day shoreline and subject to very high erosion rates and burial. A comparison of the high‐resolution GPR and ERT models was made, and their integrated results are discussed in terms of providing a more complete picture that would not be attainable using a single method. Geophysical analysis combined with archeological prospecting has revealed buried buildings north of the excavated part of the archaeological site. The results show that in this coastal environment ERT survey provided the most accurate reconstruction at the deeper wet levels of investigation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.