0000000000159046
AUTHOR
C. Bottari
Evidence of surface faulting in the archaeological site of Santa Venera al Pozzo (Catania-Eastern Sici-ly): first results from geophysical investigations
We present the first results of a preliminary geological and geophysical survey carried out in the archaeological site of Santa Venera al Pozzo (Catania, Italy). The site dates back to the Roman Age, (1st century BC). Geological surveys highlighted a set of remarkable fractures affecting some archeological remains, suggesting the occurrence of a capable fault zone through the area. Multidisciplinary geophysical surveys (seismic refraction and electrical resistivity tomographies, together with aerial photographic and thermographic survey) identified a main tectonic discontinuity ascribable to the fault zone, allowing us to infer that the fractures observed at surface could be the evidence of…
Low-cost remotely operated underwater and unmanned aerial vehicles: New technologies for archaeo-geophysics
In this paper we present a device for magnetic survey devoted in particular for archaeological purposes. The device is able to perform accurate measurements of the total magnetic field, it is a flexible device, programmable by the users to be suitable for any specific need. The device relies upon microcontroller, a digital three axes Fluxgate magnetometer, a GPS, and a Real Time Clock (RTC) module. The device is compact and lightweight to be assembled on aerial and marine drones. Recently, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) gained great potential for archaeo-geophysics because of their versatility and low cost, therefore the magnetometer represents a very us…
GPR investigations at San Nicolò Church: a case-study from the 1669 eruption in the old settlement of Misterbianco (Etna, Sicily)
Misterbianco, located on the southern slope of Mt. Etna (eastern Sicily), was destroyed in the past by two catastrophic events that raised the old town to the ground. The first was the great eruption of 1669, whose lava front buried dozens of villages encountered along its path, entirely destroying the architectural heritage of Etna's southern flank. The second event was the disastrous 1693 Val di Noto earthquake, which caused major destruction throughout south-eastern Sicily, also damaging the few still standing buildings in the town. The GPR survey performed at this site, 350 years after the eruption, allowed a first attempt of planimetric reconstruction of the San Nicolo Church. Starting…
Multidisciplinary investigations at the Kamarina archaeological site (southern Sicily, Italy)
Multidisciplinary geophysical investigations have been carried out in a small area of the Greek archaeological site of Kamarina, in southern Sicily, in order to support some hypotheses, derived from historical and archaeological bases. After an aerial photographic and thermographic survey, a small area near to the Agora has been considered for magnetometric and GPR investigations. Obtained results show a good correlation and allow to highlight some structures oriented in agreement with the uncovered remains. The use of integrated geophysical techniques allowed a more robust interpretation of the detected anomalies in order to better address the choices for new excavations.