Posted on 06/10/2020 12:25:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A preliminary map of Falerii Novi, an ancient Roman city located 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Rome, has been compiled with data taken from ground-penetrating radar. It's "preliminary" because it wasn't humanly possible for the researchers to fully analyze the 28 billion data points collected during the course of the project, explained Martin Millett, a co-author of the study and an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge...
The researchers were able to document the locations of buildings, monuments, passageways, and even water pipes -- all without having to pick up a single hand trowel. In addition to documenting these previously unknown architectural features, the scientists were able to chronicle changes to the city over time and discern unique elements not seen elsewhere in ancient Rome...
Falerii Novi is well documented in historical accounts, representing just one of roughly 2,000 cities across the Roman Empire. It first appeared in 241 BCE and was occupied until the Medieval period...
For the new survey, Millett and his colleagues used an all-terrain vehicle to tow a rig equipped with ground-penetrating radar. The scientists made scans every 12.5 centimeters (4.9 inches) across the entire 75-acre site. Falerii Novi was chosen as a good place to test the technology, as the town is not obscured by forests or buried beneath newer structures. What's more, the site is protected under Italian law.
"But even if this city wasn't protected by law, it would've been impossible to excavate on this scale,"...
Falerii Novi had an unorthodox layout and was less standardized compared to other ancient Roman cities. Previous work with magnetometers, another non-invasive scanning method, identified sacred spaces within the city. The new work identified large buildings within this marginal space, particularly next to Falerii Novi's gates.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Annotated view of the city. Image: L. Verdonck et al., 2020/Antiquity
Thanks Red Badger for the link!
Just bookmarked this. Fascinating!
Thanks for posting this!
By the way, if you have a ping list, please put me on it! Always wanted to be an archaeologist. Studied Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance history in college. :)
I took History of Western Civ 101 and 102 in college. Medieval and Renaissance history would have been my bag. I always fancied myself as a nobleman. Or a fop. *chuckle*
That radar rig reminded me of something.
Growave kills weeds using microwave technology
There is not one word about racism in the entire article!
How deep under the surface is the town and what covered it up? I am fascinated by these old Roman ruins. I lived in Naples Italy for four years (Military) and often visited pompeii and Herculaneum to watch the excavations. So was this town also covered by some sort of volcanic activity?
How deep under the surface is the town and what covered it up?
...
That’s what happens when you don’t vacuum or sweep for several hundred years.
I looked up some photos on Google, and some foundations and walls are still above ground. Over the centuries I’d say many stones and blocks were removed to be used on other projects.
Very impressive.
Your silence is violence, man, you know the words you must signal to be ever read again.
Very intersting
Trump's fault. /jk
:^) Fop is best, they had it very easy. In doing some genealogy, I was surprised to find some of both, didn't expect that at all.
What Moonman62 said. Rain-induced erosion, wind-(ditto), seasonal flooding, earthworm activity, later people using the place for a quarry and dump, later people building over it...
My pleasure.
Welcome to the GGG list.
Thank you!
I was always a bit of an armchair historian. Actually, I really do think I’m a high level functional autistic. Not Rain Man, but a pit bull with a fresh bone autistic.
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