Geophysical Surveys for Archaeological Research in Urban Areas: The Case of the Roman Theatre in Padua

Abstract

The Roman theatre of Padua stood in the area now occupied by Prato della Valle, a huge elliptical-shaped square with a central green part (Isola Memmia) surrounded by a canal, built in the second half of the 18th century and part of the modern urban city center of Padua. Some still-preserved remains of the Roman theatre stand at the bottom of this canal. Recently, in 2017, emptying and cleaning the canal and excavating these remains, which had been known in the past, new geometrical and archaeological information has been collected. To date, however, there are no specific indications about additional preserved buried parts of the Roman theatre and its overall extent between the central and the outer part of Prato della Valle. Therefore, several electrical resistivity tomographies (ERT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) sections were collected in 2017 to gather new information. The results of geophysical prospecting with recent archaeological evidence and historical documents, even the complexity of the urban environment, provide further details on the possible extent and location of additional buried remains of the Roman theatre, opening new archaeological considerations and issues related to the use of ERT and GPR in urban contexts.

Keywords

• urban archaeology
• Roman theatre
• electrical resistivity tomography
• ground-penetrating radar