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GPR and electrical images survey to detect archaeological structures in the urban area of Matera (Southern Italy)
by
Enzo Rizzo
IMAA-CNR
Coauthors: Filippo Cristallo, Vincenzo Lapenna, Antonio Loperte, Sabatino Piscitelli (IMAA-CNR), Lorenzo Crocco, Raffaele Persico, Francesco Soldovieri (IREA-CNR)
An integrated geophysical survey was performed in the urban area of Matera (Southern Italy) with the aim to have indication on the causes of unexpected local disarrangement phenomena located inside S. Rocco square.
The urban area of Matera (the city of the “Sassi”) is characterized by an unbelievable labyrinth of interconnected and overlapped ancient residences, galleries, cisterns, crypts, graves, etc . These shallow cavities were generally dig with excavation techniques proceeding with rooms and pillars in the calacarenitic substratum of the hill where Matera rises. Therefore, the main finality was to understand if such sinking were produced by a beginning of collapse or deformation of shallow cavities possibly present in the subsoil.
In this study, we have used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) methods. Moreover, some GPR data have been differently processed in order to obtain a reconstruction of some buried zones based on an inverse scattering technique.
Forty-five GPR profiles were recorded with a GSSI SIR System-2000 acquisition system and with 200 and 400 MHz monostatic antennas and a high resolution electrical resistivity tomography were carried out along a profile crossing the square.
The compared results of the geophysical methods allowed to delineate position and geometry of several cavities in the subsoil. These results piloted in such a way some perforations that highlighted the located cavities.
Date received: July 16, 2004
Copyright © 2004 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caon-11.