Archeologists Map a Buried Roman City in Italy With Radars, Without Digging Any Soil at All

One of the biggest issues archeologists face during site exploration is the potential damage, techniques like digging bring with them. For a long time, digging was the only way experts could peek into remote historical sites, but with the advent of new technologies archeology has benefited.

An example of it was on display at the analysis of Falerii Novi in 2020, a Roman town that prospered from around 241 B.C. until 700 B.C.E., Popular Science reported. Archeologists while examining this site utilized ground-penetrating radar and created a full-fledged map of the buried city, in just a matter of months.

In this method, signals are sent out and experts based on the speed and manner in which they bounce back map out the area. Metals have a different frequency compared to the earth surrounding them. This allows experts to get a good picture of where things like buildings or pipes fit in remote regions.

For this site in Italy, archeologists had to drag the radar instruments across the designated area, recording readings every five or so inches along the ride.

The examination was undertaken by experts from the University of Cambridge and Ghent University, and the findings were published in a journal named Antiquity. Falerii Novi was located 40 miles north of Rome, as per the study.

Researchers have found evidence of a bath complex, large homes, a marketplace, public buildings and monuments, temples, and water pipes at the site. The findings suggest that Falerii Novi at its peak was a bustling city with a population of thousands. 

The quality of results produced by the ground-penetrating radar astounded the experts, Popular Science reported. "What’s really interesting is not just what you can see, but how clearly you can see it," Martin Millett, the author of the study and a professor of classical archeology at Cambridge said.

Experts collected a huge chunk of data through the examination, which has posed a bit of a challenge for researchers, Smithsonian Magazine reported. The analysis has proved to be a timely affair, with only a 2.5-acre section taking 20 hours to process. The detailed exploration though has allowed the researchers to identify an extensive route circling the city, which they would have likely missed out on through conventional methods. 

Archeologists are ecstatic with what the radar has been able to produce for them but understand that they need to delve deeper, Popular Science reported. To find out the authentic history and experience of people in the place, researchers need to examine the art, tools, and fossils of the site.

Helena Fracchia, a professor of the classics at the University of Alberta, claims that such objects cannot be analyzed just through radars and need a close look. Hence, even though the work done by radars at Falerii Novi is a huge step forward in terms of non-invasive exploration, there is much more advancement that needs to take place before it becomes a go-to option for archeologists, as per experts.