Archaeological prospection north of Schinias rowing centre in Marathon at the site of ancient Trikorynthos

Abstract

A large‐scale geophysical survey was carried out at the foothills of a topographic table hosting the ruins of the ancient city ‘Trikorynthos’, in the area of Marathon, north of Athens. The explored site assumed to host remnants of ancient constructions belonging to the ancient city. Although the explored site is associated with the final phase of the famous Marathon battle, it was not expected to bear any signs of that event. Because the bulk of the survey had to be during the dry period, resistivity mapping could not be carried out. Further, tests of magnetic prospecting proved unsuccessful, leaving the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) survey as the only alternative. Therefore, a total area of about 10 000 m2 was covered by ERTs during the dry months of 2001. A few months later, during the wet winter period, about 5500 m2 were explored by resistivity mapping. The electrical tomographic imaging was extensive, leading to the collection of a large volume of tomographic data. The distance between the measured electrical sections was ranging from 0.6 to 2.4 m at places, depending on the nature of the expected targets. The large number of ERTs carried out renders the survey as one of the largest worldwide of this kind. Processing and interpretation of the tomographic data was carried out in three‐dimensional (3D) using custom‐built algorithms. The inverted data were combined to produce depth slices and 3D images. A few months after the ERT survey, the wet winter conditions allowed the conduct of resistance mapping. Thus, spatially limited resistivity mapping was carried out to complement the ERT survey. The whole operation resulted in detecting and mapping various concealed structures, some of which were verified by the subsequent excavation. Therefore, the ancient use of the area is revealed by the combined result of the geophysical investigation and excavation. In fact, the area should had comprised a road network with extended cemetery westwards and rural premises at the TEST side.