Fast geophysical prospecting applied to archaeology: results at «Villa ai Cavallacci» (Albano Laziale, Rome) site

Abstract

The present essay is the result of a cooperative work between geophysicists and archaeologists in which the authors carried out an integrated geophysical prospecting in an archaeological site near Rome. This paper describes the methodology and the results of a geophysical survey carried out on Villa ai Cavallacci, an ancient roman building in Albano Laziale (Rome) discovered in the late seventies. It is often possible to obtain very important results planning a fast geophysical survey opportunely; within this framework (due to the fact that an archaeological excavation was planned in a short time), an integrated geophysical techniques survey (GPR, magnetic, and geoelectric tomography) has been carried out on the areas indicated by the archaeologists. Even if the described geophysical survey should be considered only a first step analysis, the data pointed out some very interesting features confirmed by the excavation.

Keywords

• archaeology
• integrated geophysical prospecting
• GPR
• geoelectric tomography
• magnetic survey