Articles by Michele Abballe

LiDAR technology has significantly advanced archaeological prospection, but its potential has been limited by the availability of data, as these are often collected through regional or state campaigns aimed at landscape and environmental mapping rather than archaeological research. Although LiDAR has been widely applied in Italy, partial coverage has left significant areas unexplored, including Emilia-Romagna (RER). Notably, RER launched a new LiDAR mapping campaign in 2022, starting with six test areas. Two of them, the Vena del Gesso Romagnola and Valmarecchia, were selected to assess the potential of the novel RER LiDAR-derived DTMs, which have 0.5m resolution and comprehensive coverage, compared to earlier national MASE/MATTM DTMs with lower 1m resolution and incomplete coverage. The analysis of RER DTMs revealed site layouts, standing remains, and partially buried features across seven medieval castles, including many structures previously unknown in national data and not recorded by earlier field surveys. Higher resolution and full coverage of RER DTMs proved to be especially valuable for hilltop sites, so it is hoped that RER will fund additional mapping campaigns to achieve complete regional coverage. Meanwhile, newly acquired datasets from 2023 and 2024 offer valuable opportunities to further advance archaeological research in the region.

The nucleation of the rural population was a widespread phenomenon during the Middle Ages that interested many areas of Western Europe. However, many of these sites are now deserted with the underlying phenomena causing these abandonments not always easy to reconstruct. Archaeologists have been interested in these medieval settlements since the middle of the 19th century, and remote sensing has played a decisive role in mapping hundreds of them. This also applies to many parts of the Po Valley but not the Romagna plain, where hundreds of medieval sites are known but almost exclusively based on written sources. However, the increasing availability of aerial and satellite images offers a valuable opportunity to bridge this knowledge gap. The systematic study of legacy images allowed the mapping of new defensive elements and reconstruction of the general plan of six deserted medieval fortified settlements in the broader hinterland of Ravenna. PlanetScope 3m resolution images were later exploited to continuously monitor these sites during periods prone to crop marks formation to detect the presence of wide crop/soil marks (e.g. ditches). Six successful field verifications demonstrate that these ‘coarse’ images are sufficient to plan drone surveys that can allow the mapping of additional smaller features.

The Multi-Scale Relief Model (MSRM) is a novel algorithm developed for the visual interpretation of landforms. This was tested within the Romagna plain, the south-eastern part of the Po Valley (Italy), to establish whether it was able to detect fluvial ridges within this alluvial landscape. Since the MSRM is not the only method to carry out morphometric analysis, it was compared with other techniques previously used in landscape archaeology, such as the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), the Topographic Position Index (TPI), and the Deviation from mean Elevation (DEV). At the same time, the SRTM 1 Arc-Second Global was compared with a Local DEM based on ground control points. Subsequently, the result of the MSRM algorithm was tested through targeted desktop- and field-based research. This validation phase proved essential to test the accuracy of the DEM-derived products. Furthermore, it allowed us to verify the existence of the detected fluvial ridges, to propose a chronological range for some of them, and, finally, to collect new archaeological evidence.