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Title
New perspectives to save cultural heritage
Author
Altan, M. Orhan

CIPA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey
744
soil, rendered the identification of the useful signals more
difficult. In general the anomalies have a curved or linear trend
which in some cases is clearly referable to ruins of various
houses. The archaeologists lingered over the elongated anomaly
detected close to the theatre in the THR area. It is a rectilinear
signal about 60 meters long, which appears moreover parallel to
a defense wall of the IV century A.D.. The anomaly is nearly 5
meters large and its positive and negative values respectively
range around ±8 nT (Figure 3a).
Figure 3. a) Magnetogram of the THR area. The AB anomaly
extends for about 60 meters. Inside the white square area, an
excavation was undertaken, b) e c) The recovered structures.
In the summer of 1999 a first excavation was performed in
correspondence of this signal and a double-columned marble
column was found at a depth of about 0.8 m (Figure 3b). The
extension of the trench along the direction of the anomaly
proved to be fruitless. Only when the excavation was widened
laterally and dug deeper (1.1 m) a pavement made of blocks of
grainstone (0.6X1.3X0.12 m) was discovered. The
archaeologists had considered it as a basement of a long
colonnade or of a portico. At present more then 50 meters of
this structure has been recovered (Figure 3c).
Once having been mapped the basement showed a good
correspondence in its relative position respect to the AB
anomaly.
3.2 Canosa (Italy)
As it emerges from a rich tradition of studies Canusium
(Canosa) had, between the IV and VI century A.D., a leading
role inside the provinces of Apulia et Calabria and in general in
all of southern Italy. It represented the political and
administrative center being the seat both of the provincial
governor and of the concilium of the Apuli et Calabri. Under the
economic profile of notable importance were the agricultural
activities, the transhumant breeding and handicraft productions.
In Canusium moreover there was a prestigious diocese ruled by
bishops often involved in important councils and in delicate
diplomatic operations (Volpe et al., 2002).
Historical sources and some recoveries on the ground have
suggested the presence of an episcopal complex of early
Christian age (IV-VI A.D.) in the outskirts of Canosa, on the
hill of S.Pietro. In the summer 2001, within a research project
with the University of Foggia (Italy), a high resolution
magnetic investigation was carried out.
Figure 4. Magnetogram of the whole surveyed area.
The purpose of the survey was the location and the
identification of the principal buried structures so to delimit the
area with the greatest archaeological potentialities, optimizing
in this way the excavations with a noticeable saving of time and
money.
Altogether 3450 m 2 were surveyed. In Figure 4 the whole
magnetogram is represented. A greater concentration of
meaningful signals is immediately noted within a central zone
delimited by the white contour. Many linear and curved
anomalies are well recognizable. These are mostly negative
with values that are around —10 nT. The minimum and
maximum values of the entire area are much greater (-583 nT,
1986 nT) and connected to the intense signal formed by the
regular oblique sequence of white spots absorbed in a
continuous black halo. This strong superficial noise cuts
sideways the whole magnetogram overlapping the weaker
anomalies produced by the archaeological remains. Actually the
following excavations highlighted a set of metallic anchorages,
rests of a vineyard uprooted in the recent past.
In Figure 5a the most significant anomalies were outlined
schematically illustrating in this way the possible shape of the
correspondent sources. The archaeologists used this drawing to
Figure 5. a) All the highlighted anomalies in the magnetogram
are sketched with white lines in order to show the possible
shape of the sources, b) Aerial photo of the episcopal complex
revealed in the S.Pietro Hill..
plan their field work. Figure 5b shows the aerial photo of the
excavations, taken from a captive balloon: all the recovered
structures are well visible. They are generally made of
calcareous stones. Comparing the photo with the magnetogram
it can be noticed how all the magnetic features underlined inside
the dug area had a satisfactory archaeological feedback.
However, it is also true that many structures which are not
identifiable in the magnetogram exist. This is mainly due to the
complexity of the sources. In fact as shown in the aerial photo,