Under the Park. Recent Geophysical Surveys at Verulamium (St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK)

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of the geophysical surveysprincipally a large scale gradiometer surveyof Verulamium Park, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK, under which lies approximately half of the Roman city. Verulamium was the third largest Roman city in the province of Britanniacovering some 81 haand the largest which is currently available for survey. Approximately 65 ha lies under parkland or pasture. The 30 ha available under the Park was the subject of a magnetometry survey in 2013-2014, along with smaller areas of ground penetrating radar (GPR), earth resistance and magnetic susceptibility. These surveys were undertaken as part of a community archaeology project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The surveys have detected a wide variety of features including stone buildings of varying size and complexity, pottery kilns, roads, pits and ditches. The results so far suggest the town can be divided into an area of largely elite housing, an area characterised by smaller structures and industrial features, and a somewhat enigmatic magnetically quiet area. Challenges in the interpretation of the results are discussed, as are potential solutions and planned future work.

Ground-penetrating radar survey at Falerii Novi: a new approach to the study of Roman cities

“…Recent work has demonstrated the value of GPR survey on Roman urban sites (e.g. Verdonck & Taelman 2012; Jardel et al 2017;Lockyear & Shlasko 2017), but these projects are predominantly small scale, covering no more than a few hectares. Since 2015, however, we have deployed GPR on a much larger scale to generate high-resolution images of two complete greenfield Roman towns in Italy: Interamna Lirenas and Falerii Novi (https:// www.classics.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/beneath-the-surface-of-roman-republican-cities).…”

Comprehensive geophysical prospection of the Roman and late antique city of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain)

“…The results have been increasing in the last few decades, and there are already many examples of extensive geophysical surveys. The city of Viroconium (Wroxeter) (Gaffney et al, 2000), using gradiometry, or Verulamium (Lockyear & Shlasko, 2017) are examples of this type of approach. The excellent results obtained at Falerii Novi provided an image of the entire Roman city using GPR (Verdonck et al, 2020).…”

Ground penetrating radar surveys in the archaeological area of Augusta Bagiennorum: Comparisons between geophysical and archaeological campaigns

“…GPR has largely demonstrated its applicability and effectiveness for archaeological investigations over Roman remains (e.g., Linford, 2004; Lockyear & Shlasko, 2017; Neubauer, Eder‐Hinterleitner, Seren, & Melichar, 2002; Piro, Haynes, Liverani, & Zamuner, 2017; Verdonck, Launaro, Vermeulen, & Millett, 2020; Yalçiner et al, 2009). Indeed, GPR data interpretation is favoured in this investigation context given the directionality of the targets to be imaged.…”