Magnetometer Survey at the Newly‐discovered Roman City of Auritz/Burguete (Navarre). Results and Preliminary Archaeological Interpretation

Abstract

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.

Geoarchaeological Core Prospection as a Tool to Validate Archaeological Interpretation Based on Geophysical Data at the Roman Settlement of Auritz/Burguete and Aurizberri/Espinal (Navarre)

“…A magnetic survey performed in 2013 covered ca. 18 ha and revealed the main layout of the settlement [26]. Results revealed differences in the magnetic response that had not been well explained and became, together with the archaeological description of the site, one of the main concerns of the investigation team (Figure 1b).…”

“…The methodology and results of the magnetic survey can be found in [26]. Cores were drilled with a mechanical petrol-driven 2-stroke power auger (Van Walt window corer equipped with a Cobra TT engine).…”

“…In Otegi area the geophysical survey revealed variations in background magnetic disturbance, that difficult the identification of archaeological remains [26]. This disturbance had been preliminarily attributed to differences in soil properties, not related to archaeological occupation.…”

“…In general, the magnetic contrast allowed a good description of the main walls and the inner distribution of the buildings. Some areas, however, had shown a lack of magnetic contrast or poor definition of anomalies, even where the existence of archaeological deposits was known [26]. The cores were mainly drilled in three different areas, expecting to obtain complementary information to understand the differences on magnetic contrast.…”

“…Standing in a small hill, this area was preliminarily interpreted as a possible singular area of the site [26,32]. Four cores were drilled within this area: BH17, BH19, BH24 and BH25 (Figure 11a).…”