Articles by Stefano Campana

The paper presents and discusses results from the integration of various methods of geophysical prospection on the plateau between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina on the ancient suburb of Rome. The use of large-scale magnetometry, georadar and electromagnetic survey in an area of particularly dense archaeological remains is a highly effective methodology for revealing important information on previously unknown archaeological features. Of particular interest in this case is the comparison between geophysical data and the results of previous excavations, and newly-targeted test investigations that suggest the survival of the documented but previously undiscovered basilica of Pope Damasus as well as unknown catacomb tunnels at San Callisto and elsewhere on the plateau.

The Department of Medieval Archaeology of the University of Siena has been engaged for several years in the testing of GPS survey application for landscape archaeology. In the first section of this paper we have summarised the GPS application developed for field-walking, aerial, geophysical and topographical surveys. In the second section we have discussed the fact that, since the second half of the 1990s, we have felt a progressive disjunction between work in the laboratory and work in the field. While the availability of advanced technologies has been rapidly growing, activities in the field have continued to make use of instruments and methodologies developed in the 1970s. A mobile GIS system managed through the merging of PDA and GPS technologies represents at the moment the best available solution for restoring the link. The conclusions reached in our experiments using these devices consistently go far beyond the increased fieldwork efficiency and finally make it possible to systematically apply strategies and methodologies developed in the past but rarely used up to now because they were too time consuming.