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Geophysical Survey and Archaeological Data at Masseria Grasso (Benevento, Italy)

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Abstract

The use of geophysical methods in metrology is a significant tool within the wide research topic of landscape archaeology context. Since 2011, the Ancient Appia Landscapes Project aims to recognize dynamics, shapes and layout of the ancient settlement located along the Appia road east of Benevento, and cyclical elements and human activities that influenced the choice of landscapes. The integration of geophysical data with an archaeological infra-site analysis allowed us to investigate the area of Masseria Grasso, about 6 km from Benevento (Campania region, Italy). In this framework, an archaeogeophysical approach (Geomagnetic and Ground Penetrating Radar) was adopted for detecting anomalies potentially correlated with buried archaeological evidences. The geomagnetic results have given a wide knowledge of buried features in a large survey highlighting significant anomalies associated with the presence of buildings, roads and open spaces. These geophysical results permitted us to define the first archaeological excavations and, successively, a detailed Ground Penetrating Radar approach has been provided highlighting the rooms and paved spaces. The overlap between archaeological dataset and geophysical surveys has also allowed recognizing the path of the ancient Appia road near the city of Benevento and hypothesize the settlement organization of the investigated area, which has been identified with the ancient Nuceriola.

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Acknowledgements

The authors and AAL project team (www.aalproject.eu) thank the “Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Culturali” of the University of Salerno, the team of Laboratorio Modelli (director Salvatore Barba), Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, of the same University, the Centre Jean Bérard (USR 3133 CNRS - EFR) for their support for the archaeological research. Special thanks to all the students of the University of Salerno. Enzo Rizzo thanks the Director of CNR-IMAA (Dr Vincenzo Lapenna) for his support to the geophysical activities in AAL project. The authors thanks the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions that improved the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio Hydrogeosite, CNR-IMAA, 85050, Tito, PZ, Italy

    Enzo Rizzo, Luigi Capozzoli, Gregory De Martino & Felice Perciante

  2. Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Alfonso Santoriello, Cristiano Benedetto De Vita & Daniela Musmeci

Authors
  1. Enzo Rizzo
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  2. Alfonso Santoriello
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  3. Luigi Capozzoli
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  4. Gregory De Martino
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  5. Cristiano Benedetto De Vita
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  6. Daniela Musmeci
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  7. Felice Perciante
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Contributions

ER, LC, GDM and FP carried out the geophysical measurements (Geomagnetic and GPR), processed and analysed the data. AS (AAL Project Leader), CBDV and DM carried out the archaeological studies, the excavations and the interpretation of the geomagnetic maps.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enzo Rizzo.

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Rizzo, E., Santoriello, A., Capozzoli, L. et al. Geophysical Survey and Archaeological Data at Masseria Grasso (Benevento, Italy). Surv Geophys 39, 1201–1217 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-018-9494-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-018-9494-y

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