Tres Tabernae archaeological site (Cisterna di Latina, Italy): new evidence revealed by an integrated geophysical investigation

Abstract

The “Mercator” (Medocc, INTERREG IIIB) is an European project aimed at the detailed investigation of the historical and archaeological heritage of the Mediterranean area. Within this project, a broad research on the importance of the ancient main merchant routes development in this region was financed. Among the various tasks, an integrated geophysical survey at Tres Tabernae site, an ancient “statio” along the Appian way (close to Latina, central Italy), was carried out using several techniques focused on the identification of buried archaeological remains. The main goal of the investigation was to cover the area surrounding the partially excavated site obtaining a quick but meaningful result about the presence of some buried interesting features. To this purpose, the involved geophysical techniques were frequency domain electromagnetic induction, ground penetrating radar and magnetometry. In order to obtain the best results, these methods were optimized keeping into account the kind of the involved structures and its relation to the environmental context. The combination of the different geophysical techniques showed good results, pointing out the possible presence of new buried structures such as walls, floors and also a lead pipeline.