Cristina Corsi

Ground-penetrating radar survey at the Roman town of Mariana (Corsica), complemented with fluxgate gradiometer data and old and recent excavation results

This paper presents the results of a GPR survey carried out at the Roman town of Mariana (Corsica, France). Excavations (1959-1965 and 2000-2007) yielded a Roman street with houses and shops, an early mediaeval cathedral and a mediaeval bishops palace. When compared with the hypothetical town limits derived from aerial photography, old cadastral maps and the location of two cemeteries, the excavations are in an eccentric position. The principal aim of the geophysical survey was to shed more light on the Early Imperial town centre (1st-2nd century AD), which was to be found further north. The results from a fluxgate gradiometer survey demonstrated the presence of buildings with an orientation corresponding to the excavated street. In the GPR data, an orthogonal street system became noticeable and most of the buildings can be identified as private dwellings. In several parts of the town, there are indications for more than one occupation phase. For example, in the north-western insula of the main survey area, the GPR results show a large building complex with deep foundations, as well as shallow walls of poor construction quality in the courtyard of this building. A trial excavation confirmed this dichotomy: it revealed solid walls with brick facings originating in the 1st or 2nd century AD, as opposed to alignments of loose boulders, not older than the 3rd century. On the basis of the GPR results, two small excavation trenches from the 1930s, one of which contained the remains of a bathhouse, can now be located exactly.

A geomagnetic survey of Ammaia: a contribution to understanding Roman urbanism in Lusitania

This paper presents the results of geomagnetic field survey undertaken in three stages (July 2009-October 2010) within the area of the Roman town of Ammaia (Marvao, Alto Alentejo, Portugal), some 120 km northwest of Merida (fig. 1). The principal goal was to map the full extent of sub-surface archaeological features within the archaeological park owned by the Fundacao Cidade de Ammaia and those neighbouring properties which can be argued to fall within the walls (fig. 2). The integration of the data collected through several survey techniques tested at Ammaia is still ongoing. Topographical and threedimensional geophysical data from ground-penetrating radar and earth-resistivity survey will soon permit more detailed spatial, volumetric and diachronic interpretations of targeted areas. Other approaches, such as limited excavations and other types of survey (GPR, earth-resistance, DGPS, augerings, artefact surveys, metal-detector surveys, and scanning of standing architecture) (fig. 3), have been presented elsewhere, while a full discussion of the surveys of the forum area is the subject of a recent paper.1 This article presents the data collected through gradiometer survey2 and its initial archaeological interpretation leading to a complete town plan. Based on this data we will assess the urban characteristics of a

Sulle vie dell'Impero tra IV e VI secolo. Il ruolo della Chiesa nel sistema tardoantico di mobilità

Since the second half of the 4th century, the transportation system of the whole empire started to undergo transformations and adaptations. In the first phase, these changes can mainly be seen in the infrastructures of road stations and other stopping places. In most cases these consisted in creating Christian places of worship in the immediate vicinity of the complex which offered services to road traffic. Already during the same 4th century, however, a growing interest in the system of communication networks was noticeable on the part of the Church. This interest was initially implemented only in a set of recommendations for Christian travellers, with regard to increasing the number of Christian hosts to house the faithful during their pilgrimage journey. At the same time, the Church, through its representatives from the clergy, the monks, and many of the elites of the Christian community, and even of the Imperial family, started creating buildings for use in assisting the pilgrims and other kinds of tr...

Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics: An Introduction

By the term ‘archaeological diagnostics’, we mean a whole array of methodologies and approaches to the survey of archaeological sites, mainly referring to those that do not imply excavations or at least only very limited ones. ‘Non-destructive’ or ‘non-invasive’ approaches to the investigation of ancient landscapes have always been available to archaeologists, since the first methodologA very important sectionical definitions of the discipline were drafted (e.g. Bradford 1957; Clarke 1977, 1990; Pasquinucci and Trement 2000; Renfrew and Bahn 2000). Among the most traditional methods, the collection of historical documentation and the field survey are undoubtedly the best developed, but aerial archaeology also provided a boost as soon as photography and flying machines came into use (Chap. 2 by Ceraudo, in this volume). The use of ancient sources, archive research and toponymy for the investigation of cultural landscapes is so rooted that it has not been possible here to devote specific chapters to these branches of archaeological research. Therefore, we have decided to limit the already wide spectrum of this volume to the newest technological developments achieved in remote sensing and geophysical surveying and to the most recent methodological innovations that have been introduced to the broad approach of the archaeological survey of greenfield sites. A very important section of this volume deals with aspects related to the visualisation of survey data and their valorisation

Mariana (Corsica). Integrating GPR in Roman urban survey

In 2000 a new phase of archaeological field activities started on the abandoned city site of Mariana, located south of Bastia (NE-Corsica). Within the on-going international research project “Projet Collectif de Recherche: Mariana et la vallée du Golo” a joint team of the Universities of Cassino (I) and Gent (B) studies the topography of the ancient city in a diachronic framework. In this paper we will investigate the crucial role of GPR prospections integrated in a whole set of more traditional methods of non-invasive city survey and stratigraphic excavations.

Medieval Landscape Archaeology in Italy: A Review

MEDIEVAL LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY in Italy is reviewed here by analysing the methodological approaches and the theoretical frameworks adopted by researchers working from the 1970s to the present day. Notwithstanding a kind of ‘resistance’ of Italian archaeology to theorisation, the intensive fieldwork and fruitful exchanges of the many teams working on the Peninsula have not only brought important achievements for the reconstruction of settlement patterns and landscape dynamics during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, but have also animated and enriched the debates about approaches and methodologies. The ‘Italian context’ is therefore framed within the European mainstream and the international panorama.