Archaeological geophysics investigations of the Villa degli Antonini and Rota Ria Archaeological sites.

Abstract

A research approach that integrated different geophysical methods for archaeological prospection was carried out to understand the nature and chronological development of the curvilinear structure in the archaeological site of “Villa degli Antonini” (Genzano di Roma, Italy) (hereafter VA), and the finding of the settlement structure in the archaeological site of Rota Ria (Mugnano in Teverina, Viterbo, Italy) (hereafter RR) (SKRAME et al., 2016). To this purpose a detailed magnetic prospecting survey was carried out since the walls of the curvilinear structure are made of volcanic rocks, such as lava and tuffs of local provenience, that induce a very high degree of magnetization. Even in the RR archaeological framework, both the geological environment and the buried walls made of peperino and tuff blocks, suggested the use of magnetic prospecting survey. In order to determine the exact shape and therefore the best excavation strategy for these buried archaeological structures, a series of different geophysical investigations (Electromagnetic (EMI) and Ground penetrating radar survey (GPR)) were carried out. The final step of the investigation was the excavation in the targeted sector of the study areas in order to test the validity of the geophysical interpretations. The most interesting result was that, in both cases, the excavations have confirmed the results obtained during the magnetic surveying.