Integrated geophysical survey to recognize ancient Picentia’s buried walls, in the Archaeological Park of Pontecagnano – Faiano (Southern Italy)

Abstract

There is no information on previous geophysical prospections carried out in the Archaeological Park of Pontecagnano- Faiano, in order to reconstruct the ancient settlement of Picentia, an Etrusco-Campanian and Roman settlement near Salerno (Southern Italy). Therefore, an integrated geophysical survey based on magnetic, geoelectric and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) prospections was executed in the Park. The methods provided a basic map of buried ancient structures at depth from 0.1-0.2 to about 1.5 meters. Magnetic data were processed analyzing the analytical signal of the vertical derivative of the measured gradient and this substantially reduced a strong fence effect. The results of the geophysical prospections showed archaeological structures located close to those discovered in the excavated areas. The shape of the anomalies are usually elongated with well-defined geometrical characteristics. Many anomalies are arranged along orthogonal directions and they are very coherent with the excavated structures, namely the quarters structures of the ancient Picentia.