Remote sensing techniques for reconstructing a vast Neolithic settlement in Southern Italy

The combined application of remote sensing techniques is often the most effective way for deepening the knowledge on very large archaeological sites (several hectares). In particular, geophysics and aerial photography could yield very detailed information on buried structures not only outlining their location but also, in many cases, defining their planimetry. Moreover, the accurate geocoding of different data sets and the use of GIS for their integration allow to extract the most comprehensive information from a combined study.     

New discoveries in the Piramide Naranjada in Cahuachi (Peru) using satellite,Ground Probing Radar and magnetic investigations

The detection of buried earthen structures by using remote sensing techniques is still an open issue and a strategic challenge as crucial as it is complex. It is crucial because earthen archaeological remains are widely present thoughtout the world (in South America, Asia, Africa) and it is complex due to the subtle physical contrast between earthen remains and the surrounding subsoil.     

Detection of archaeological crop marks by using satellite QuickBird multispectral imagery

The capability of satellite QuickBird imagery for the identification of archaeological crop marks is herein presented and discussed for two test sites located in the South of Italy. The selected sites, dating back to Middle Ages, were buried under surfaces covered by herbaceous plants characterized by a different phenological status (dry/green) when the satellite data were acquired.     

Flights into the past: full-waveform airborne laser scanning data for archaeological investigation

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is a quite recent (mid-1990s) remote sensing technique used to measure terrain elevation. Recent studies have examined the possibility of using LiDAR in archaeological investigations to map and characterize earthworks, to capture features that may be indistinguishable on the ground and to aid the planning of archaeological excavation campaigns.     

On the Reuse of Multiscale LiDAR Data to Investigate the Resilience in the Late Medieval Time: the Case Study of Basilicata in South of Italy

The Middle Ages have been traditionally considered a crisis period due to the demographic decrease and economic deterioration occurred in Western Europe. Nevertheless, the historical reconsideration has been focused not only on decline and decay, but also on resilience and recovery which characterized the Europe of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. So, today the main open question is as follows: how can we explain the diverse attitude (namely recovery versus decline) and the reasons why some settlements were more (or less) resilient than others? To provide a contribution to this issue, we focused on two medieval villages which are located very close to each other (in the Basilicata Region Southern Italy) and selected because they are characterized by diverse vicissitudes: Irsi abandoned in the fourteenth century and Montepeloso (still “existing” and renamed Irsina) where the population of Irsi moved to. To improve our current knowledge on Irsi, we reused and integrated multiscale LiDAR datasets in order to cope with the lack of documentary source. The use of LiDAR data enabled (i) the reconstruction of the potential urban fabric of Irsi, along with its temporal development and the transformation of the surrounding landscape, and (ii) the definition of a hypothesis about the causes of its desertification based on the inter-site analysis between Irsi and Montepeloso. The main results from the LiDAR-based analysis were as follows: (i) the diachronic reconstruction of the building phases of the village and (ii) the identification of a significant indicator obtained as the ratio between the amount of cultivatable land (close to the settlement area) and the population to characterize the resilience behavior in hilly landscape. This approach has been also successfully applied to another similar case study. Outputs from our analyses pointed out that LiDAR data can fruitfully improve medieval archaeological investigations and facilitate knowledge improvement from intra to- inter-site scale analyses and from local up to a landscape perspective.