Archeologia subacquea e geomatica per la ricostruzione del paesaggio fluviale ferrarese nella Tarda Antichità: tecniche data fusion, indagini dirette e indirette

In the ambit of ASAI Project – Archeologia Subacquea delle Acque Interne we are involved on reconstruction of a Late Roman Fluvial Bank, on the palaeo-watercourse of the River Po in the Southern Delta (Ferrara District). The prototype site investigated is the artificial basin called Lago Tramonto, Gambulaga – Portomaggiore (FE), ex sand quarry. After historical, archaeological, ancient sources studies, we begun direct surveys on land and underwater, detecting structures and pieces of boat, collecting more than 200 findings; thanks to some geomatic applications with echo side scan sonar and dedicated software, we performed 3D plan-views and sections of the ex river; we detected important wood archaeological evidences, related to Roman and Late Roman life. A great session of underwater video allowed us to comprehend the ancient contest: a structured river bank with fragments of pyrogae and pieces of rafts. Archaeological findings, presence of structures, boats, geomorphological evidences with anthropic layers offer the bases for a waterscape site reconstruction. The hypothesis of reconstruction will be displayed on panels at the cultural center on the Northern Bank of the River, in the ambit of cultural heritage integrated valorization. Here we are going to introduce an updating synthesis of our work, with peculiar attention to methodology of the research (geomatic sector) and hypothesis of reconstruction of the main wood Late Roman Structures, with some notes about nautical archaeology.