Integrated geophysical methods in archaeological surveys

Abstract In the search for bodies of archaeological interest and buried man-made objects at shallow depths, geophysical methods can provide useful indications. In the present work, we sought to demonstrate the advantages of combining a number of geophysical methods when investigating an archaeological site near Rome, which presented a number of environmental difficulties. The survey area is located in the southern part of Rome (Italy). This area belongs to a large protohistoric site dating from the eighth century B.C., where a village and its necropolis have been discovered and partially studied by archaeologists. In this area we applied the following methods: resistivity profiling, magnetometry and seismic surveying with direct measurements of the traveltimes of the propagating waves through the upper layers. We applied also filtering and crosscorrelating techniques to enhance the geoelectric data and tomographic technique to enhance the seismic data.