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Integrated geophysical survey to detect buried structures for archaeological prospecting. A case‐history at Sabine Necropolis (Rome, Italy)
Author(s) -
Cardarelli E.,
Fischanger F.,
Piro S.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
near surface geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.639
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1873-0604
pISSN - 1569-4445
DOI - 10.3997/1873-0604.2007027
Subject(s) - geology , excavation , ground penetrating radar , electrical resistivity tomography , inversion (geology) , palaeogeography , prospecting , economic geology , geophysical survey , engineering geology , geophysics , regional geology , geophysical prospecting , exploration geophysics , archaeology , environmental geology , igneous petrology , seismology , volcanism , radar , mining engineering , paleontology , geography , tectonics , engineering , electrical resistivity and conductivity , telecommunications , electrical engineering
In the last few years, the location and characterization of buried historical objects is a task that generally lends itself to geophysics, thanks to the improvement of automatically measuring geophysical systems and the development of specific software for inversion problems. Furthermore, the integration of different methods permits an interpretation in which potential misunderstandings and the uncertainty of results can be reduced. The aim of the present work was to detect buried structures in an unexplored area of a Sabine Necropolis (700‐300 B.C.) located in the area of the National Research Council (at Montelibretti, Rome). During the survey, three different geophysical techniques have been employed; fluxgate gradiometry, Electrical Resistivity Tomography and Ground‐Penetrating Radar. The results are compared, integrated and interpreted indicating location of unknown buried tombs. An additional objective of this study consisted of testing new finite element modelling routines that have been integrated into the inversion algorithm developed by the authors in the past years, and, to compare the 2D inversion results with the ones achieved with the 3D Finite element inversion software ERTLab. Finally, the interpreted geophysical results have been verified through archaeological direct excavation in 2005, which have confirmed the location, dimensions and shape of the buried structure (tomb).