A long walk in the Italian countryside: Large scale geophysical prospection in rural and once-urban contexts in Italy

Geophysical prospection has long been recognized as one of the most effective forms of non-destructive archaeological investigation available for use within archaeology. Case studies from throughout the world are increasing in number, leading to a better understanding of the various geophysical methods and of the ways in which they can prove useful for exploratory survey and archaeological interpretation. Despite their wide use in archaeology geophysical methods have for the most part been applied until quite recently in ‘site-based’ projects of investigation. Technological advances, however, have in the last few years made possible the relatively rapid coverage of wider areas on a ‘landscape’ scale. That said, in the many archaeological projects undertaken each year in Italy, geophysical prospection has for the most part not yet been widely applied as an everyday investigative tool. For that reason the country has produced relatively few case-studies that publicly demonstrate the successful use of geophysical methods, least of all in contexts that encompass areas wider than the individual site or group of sites. In Italy the potential of geophysical prospection for the large-scale characterization of archaeological contexts, especially in previously-unexplored rural or formerly-urban areas, has rarely been acknowledged or seriously tested in the field, leaving the character and density of rural settlement across time virtually unknown outside areas favourable to aerial survey. It is obvious, however, that the open countryside must conceal a wide variety of archaeological information which has rarely been collected and analysed within a longstanding research framework largely dominated by field-walking survey and artefact collection. In response to this situation this dissertation presents some initial results and practical lessons from a programme of large-scale multi-sensor gradiometry aimed at the whole of the Etruscan and Roman town of Veio and the initial exploration of the lowland landscape of the Grosseto-Roselle valley in south-western Tuscany. The geophysical prospection has been complemented by a limited amount of field-walking survey, aerial photography and – most recently – targeted small-scale excavation, environmental sampling and drone-based lidar survey. Taken together with other exploratory work promoted by the University of Siena this programme of investigation has been aimed at stimulating changes in the way in which researchers in Italy study the archaeology of landscapes, moving away from an essentially ‘site-based’ approach to a truly ‘landscape’ perspective. The main text of this dissertation is consisted by five main chapters, Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: Survey work in the field and post-processing the collected data, Chapter 3: The once-urban interior of the ancient city of Veio, Chapter 4: Exploration of a sample valley landscape in Southern Tuscany and Chapter 5: Present Achievement and Future possibilities. As a supporting the main text, four Appendixes, A: Instrument used in the survey work, B: Data download and processing, C: Data and interpretation of individual fields in Grosseto- Roselle and D: Activity report, are placed in the end of this dissertation.