This paper summarizes the principal geophysical results obtained at a recently discovered Roman city at Navarre. Prior to the survey, the extent of the affected areas and the characteristics of the settlement were unknown. The authors describe the field strategy applied and focus their discussion on the archaeological interpretation of the fluxgate gradiometer data. The results allowed for a detailed description of the layout in the main area revealing a city organized along the Roman road, which would have preceded the buildings. On the contrary, the results show important differences in magnetic contrast in the surveyed areas. Whilst the walls of the main area are well resolved, other areas do not show a discernible magnetic contrast even though their existence has been proven by other sources. The origin of these differences is discussed and preliminarily attributed to waterlogging or to differences in the thickness of the archaeological deposits. The magnetic survey, therefore, has shown itself to be a suitable technique for obtaining a preliminary assessment of the archaeological characteristics of the settlement, but cannot be used to definitively assess the affected areas. The results allowed zoning based on the contrast differences that will be used to guide further investigations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
† This paper is an extended version of our paper published in Garcia-Garcia, E.; Agirre-Mauleon, J.; Andrews, J.; Aranburu, A.; Arrazola, H.; Etxegoien, J.; Fuldáin, J.; Hill, J.; Iriarte, E.; Legorburu, M.; et al. Geoarchaeological core prospection investigation to improve the archaeological interpretation of geophysical data: Case study of a Roman settlement at Auritz (Navarre). Archaeol. Polona 2015, 53, 88-91. Abstract: Geophysical survey methods are broadly used to delimit and characterize archaeological sites, but the archaeological interpretation of geophysical data remains one of the challenges. Indeed, many scenarios can generate a similar geophysical response, and often interpretations can not be validated without access to the subsoil. In large geophysical surveys many anomalies are detected and validation through archaeological trenches can not be afforded. This paper analyses the validity of geoarchaeological core survey to check the archaeological interpretations based on geophysical results. The Roman site located at Auritz/Burguete and Aurizberri/Espinal (Navarre), provides a great case of study as many investigations have been carried out. After the gradiometer survey performed in 2013 a sediment core survey was designed. 132 cores were drilled using a hand-held coring machine and the sediments were analysed in situ. Site delimitation and archaeological interpretations based on magnetic data could be improved or corrected. In this regard, the core survey proved to be an useful methodology as many anomalies could be checked within reasonable time and resources. However, further geophysical investigations trough GPR revealed unexpected remains in areas where no archaeological deposits were identified through coring. Excavations showed poor conservation level in some of those areas, leading to thin archaeological deposits hard to identify at the cores. The sediment core survey, therefore, was proved to be inconclusive to delimit the archaeological site.
Salamanca lies on the right bank of the river Tormes, a tributary of the Douro, on the northern sub-plateau of the Iberian peninsula (fig. 1). Although hardly mentioned in Roman historical sources, it is a reference point for work on Roman territory because the surveyor Frontinus (De Agrorum Qualitate [ed. Thulin 1971] 1–2) used Salmantica (in Lusitania) and Palantia (in Citerior) to exemplify ager per extremitatem mensura comprehensus, the system of land organization characteristic of stipendiary cities. Frontinus was writing in Flavian times, but the creation of ager mensura comprehensus in Lusitania occurred in the Augustan period, as is confirmed by remarkable epigraphic documentation. In N Lusitania, a total of 11 boundary-stones (termini Augustales) are known, nine from the reign of Augustus (and two of these provide explicit reference to Salmantica) and two from that of Claudius. The dates provided by Augustus’ tribunicia potestas allow us to date the surveying operations delimiting the urban territories to between A.D. 4–5 (the inscriptions from Peroviseu and Ul) and A.D. 5–6 (the inscriptions from Sao Salvador, Ledesma, Ciudad Rodrigo, and the new one from Jarandilla de la Vera). The Augustan ager mensura comprehensus may have conditioned the model of the subsequent rural settlement by creating a framework for territorial occupation being organized around the villa from the Flavian period on. The villa would dominate the rural countryside, until it disappeared around the first decades of the 5th c. as part of a process that can be associated with the breaking down of imperial authority and the arrival of the Germanic peoples in the year 409. Almost nothing is known about Salamanca’s territory during the Islamic occupation until the first official repopulation took place under the king of Leon, Ramiro II, in 939–49. The lack of attested settlements in the Douro valley between the 8th and 10th c. is a key question for the organization of the border area between the Islamic state of Al-Andalus and the kingdom of Leon, but scholars generally reject the thesis formulated in 1966 by C. Sánchez Albornoz, which tended to present the lands of the Douro valley as practically depopulated.
his paper presents the results of the investigations carried out from 2009 to 2013 in the multi-period archaeological site of La Dou (Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Girona, Catalonia). he authors expose the strategy applied to create the surveys and results of the excavations conducted to verify and date the detected features. he site was discovered in 2005 in a rescue excavation due to the building of a road, revealing a group of iring pits and other stratigraphic remains of a rare Neolithic, open-air settlement, dated from the 5 th millennium BC. In 2009, a team of archaeologists from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) created a project to expand the investigations to the cultivation ields surrounding the irst indings. A magnetic survey was used to locate new archaeological remains and delimit the possible extents of the site. he results revealed a complex magnetic map that included several groups of anomalies interpreted as possible archaeological remains in an area of circa 2.4 ha. he attention of the team was then focused on a possible ditch detected in the survey and that was partially excavated. he excavation results and the C14 analysis expanded the chronology of the site until the Bronze Age, revealing an uncommon settlement that is still the object of investigations. Résumé : Cet article présente les résultats de la recherche menée entre 2009 et 2013 sur le site archéologique multi-période de La Dou (Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Girona, Catalogne). Les auteurs exposent la stratégie d'exploration appliquée et les résultats des fouilles menées pour vériier et dater les structures détectées. Le site a été découvert en 2005 lors de fouilles préventives réalisées en raison de la construction d'une route. Elles ont révélé un groupe de structures de combustion et d'autres vestiges stratigraphiques d'un siteNéolithique daté du 5 e millénaire avant notre ère. En 2009, une équipe d'archéologues de l'Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) a créé un projet visant à étendre la recherche aux champs entourant les premières structures découvertes. Une prospection magnétique a été réalisée ain de localiser de nouveaux vestiges archéologiques et de délimiter l'étendue du site. Les résultats ont révélé une carte magnétique complexe qui comprend plusieurs groupes d'anomalies interprétées comme de possibles vestiges archéologiques dispersés sur une étendue d'environ 2,4 ha hectares. L'attention de l'équipe a été portée sur une structure interprétée comme un possible fossé et partiellement fouillée. Les résultats des fouilles et des datations au carbone 14 ont permis d'élargir la chronologie du site à l'Âge du bronze et de révéler un établissement humain rare faisant toujours l'objet de recherches.
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