INTEGRATED GEOPHYSICAL METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS

In the search for bodies of archaeological interest and buried man-made objects at shallow depths, geophysical methods can provide useful indications. In the present work, we sought to demonstrate the advantages of combining a number of geophysical methods when investigating an archaeological site near Rome, which presented a number of environmental difficulties. The survey area is located in the southern part of Rome (Italy). This area belongs to a large protohistoric site dating from the eighth century B.C., where a village and its necropolis have been discovered and partially studied by archaeologists. In this area we applied the following methods: resistivity profiling, magnetometry and seismic surveying with direct measurements of the traveltimes of the propagating waves through the upper layers. We applied also filtering and cross-correlating techniques to enhance the geoelectric data and tomographic technique to enhance the seismic data.