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In this work, the results of high-resolution integrated geophysical surveys of the archaeological site of Traiano's Villa (Altopiani di Arcinazzo, Roma, Italy) are presented. The Villa of Roman Emperor Marco Ulpio Traino (AD 98-117) was built in Arcinazzo (Italy), approximately 55 km northeast of Rome. Today, the only remains left standing at the site are the public building entrances comprising a small portion of the entire site. Over 5 ha, adjacent to the entrance remains, had not been surveyed. As part of an ongoing study to rescue this national archaeological treasure, highresolution ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, using a submetre profile spacing, integrated with a gradiometric survey, were conducted. Amplitude GPR time-slice analysis indicates that many structural foundations and walls of the villa are still well preserved below the surface. Timeslices below 1.5 m in one area indicate two large mushroom shaped structures enclosed within a large building over 100 m in length. These structures are believed to be dipping pools within a larger structure believed to be the bathhouse to the villa. At the location west of the bathhouse a large oval shaped anomaly 45 m along its major axis was located. This subsurface structure is believed to be an oval garden pond or a swimming pool. Several other remnants of rectangular buildings coincident with the oval structure but much deeper were also imaged. Other structures include a long rectangular corridor that contains many square shaped rooms, which has been interpreted as a criptoporticus. The magnetic map, related to part of the area investigated, shows many dipole anomalies. These anomalies represent linear and semicircular structures of the villa. The magnetic results provide complementary information to the GPR survey that lines out walls and floors.
Generally, in order to detect shallow archaeological features, such as tombs, cavities, walls, etc., ground penetrating radar (GPR) data are acquired along parallel profiles. In some cases, the data collected using the GPR method are difficult to interpret owing to the presence of low signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio. These signals can be generated by several factors that significantly influence the radar profiles. To enhance the interpretation of radar sections, three‐dimensional data acquisition, radar signal processing and time‐slice representation are used.
The archaeological investigated as a test site was the Sabine Necropolis (700–300 BC) at Colle del Forno (Montelibretti, Roma), believed to contain unexplored underground dromos chamber tombs. The measurements were carried out along parallel profiles in a test area, using Sir System 10 (GSSI) equipped with different antennas operating at 100, 300 and 500 MHz. The spatial interval used during the survey was 20 cm. To enhance the S/N ratio, a band‐pass filter and subtraction of an average trace on the field data has been applied; furthermore, the two‐dimensional migration technique on all profiles collected was used in order to move diffraction effects. A time‐slice representation technique was adopted to obtain a planimetric correlation between anomalous bodies at different depths.
The results indicate that the three‐dimensional data acquisition, processing and the time slice representation can help determine the location, depth and shapes of buried features.
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