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Integrated Geophysical Investigations at the Greek Kamarina Site (Southern Sicily, Italy)

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Abstract

Kamarina, located in southern Sicily (Italy), was an important Greek colony since its foundation in the sixth century BC. Archaeological excavations, carried out since the twentieth century, uncovered only limited portions of the site so far. Despite the importance of the Greek colony, the presence of remarkable buildings that archaeologists expected to bring to light has not found fully correspondence in the archaeological excavations. Consequently, the integrated geophysical prospection carried out in the study area is aimed to support and address the future archaeological investigations. After the photographic and thermographic survey obtained by an unmanned aerial vehicle, we performed a systematic survey through ground magnetic and GPR methods over an area of 6200 m2. The acquisition procedures have been optimized in order to get the best results combining high resolution and elevated speed of acquisition. The results derived from the three geophysical techniques have been conveniently combined by means of a cluster analysis, allowing us to clearly identify a series of buried archaeological features. Because of their geometrical characteristics, often in good agreement with the spatial arrangement of the archaeological remains at the surface, these buried archaeological features can be interpreted as roads, walls, or buildings foundations in which the various construction phases of the city can be clearly recognized. The integrated approach has proven to be essential for a robust interpretation of the archaeogeophysical investigation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Roberto D’Anna (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Centro Nazionale Terremoti, Roma) for his help during fieldworks. We also thank Rita Deiana for the editorial handling of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143, Rome, Italy

    Salvatore Scudero, Raffaele Martorana & Antonino D’Alessandro

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 20, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Raffaele Martorana, Patrizia Capizzi & Antonino D’Alessandro

  3. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Palermo, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146, Palermo, Italy

    Antonino Pisciotta

  4. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Roma 2, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143, Rome, Italy

    Carla Bottari

  5. Polo Regionale Museale per i Siti Culturali di Ragusa, Piazza Libertà 2, 97100, Ragusa, Italy

    Giovanni Di Stefano

  6. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università della Calabria, Via P. Bucci, Cubo 28B, 87036, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Giovanni Di Stefano

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  1. Salvatore Scudero
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  2. Raffaele Martorana
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  4. Antonino Pisciotta
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  6. Carla Bottari
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  7. Giovanni Di Stefano
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Correspondence to Salvatore Scudero.

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Scudero, S., Martorana, R., Capizzi, P. et al. Integrated Geophysical Investigations at the Greek Kamarina Site (Southern Sicily, Italy). Surv Geophys 39, 1181–1200 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-018-9483-1

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