Publication Date:
2018-03-21
Description:
Historical research has shown that Terracina (Latina, Latium) played a fundamental role in the maritime and land
traffic since before the foundation of the colony. The settlement was established where the organized system of
maritime, land, coastal, and fluvial transport had the most ideal conditions to constitute an important commercial
crossroads, apparently since the beginning of recorded history.
In order to reconstruction the buried archaeological structures attributed to the ancient Roman port, traditionally
attributed to Traiano, in the current area of the harbour of Terracina, it was carried out a gravity survey, more
than 380 gravity stations. The gravity method enables to recognize the cavity and the structures of the buildings
underground through the results of variations density in the subsoil. Seismic tomography treats the problem of
identifying a buried structure as a wave propagation process by inverting the linearized wave equation to compute
the spatial distribution of the slowness of the velocity. The purpose of our tomographic study is to further test the
method and to guide archaeologists in their future excavations by locating and identifying buried structures.
In the residual gravity anomaly map a series of positive anomalies are visible which confirm the round structures
and the pier of the buried foundations of the Imperial harbour.
Unfortunately, little remains of the functioning facilities of the harbour’s activities. The modern construction of the
harbour, in fact, has to be developed around the new inhabitable commercial area, know today as Terracina Bassa
or Borgo alla Marina. It had to be developed with a modern infrastructure of a harbor area, as in the construction
of the rooms for storage of goods, warehouses, as well as for the thermal baths, hotels and amphitheatre.
Furthermore, there are always the positive anomalies that characterize the area to the north-east of “Montone” hill
where archaeological remains are easily visible near Via Lungolinea Pio VI.
A large negative anomaly is situated in correspondence with “Montone”. Gravity information shows an average
density of the hill approximately 1.10 g/cm3, notably less than the recorded data relative to dry sand, approximately
1.6 g/cm3. The low value founds hits at the possibility of an “emptiness” in the subsoil of “Montone” hill,
attribuiting to the possible ancient buried constructions (the rooms for storage of goods and warehouses). The
seismic refraction method provides information on the low frequency component of the model for the shallowest
layers. In this way, it is possible to fix the thickness of the surface layer, as well as to determine a velocity model.
Use of the refraction method in “Montone” hill has resulted in the determination of the depth of the walls upon
which the foundations were built.
The sandy covering would therefore be natural from aeolian origins, like all the dunes present along this area near the southern coast of Latium. This hypothesis is in contrast to the information recorded from 1600 that attributes the formation of the reliefs accumulated to sand having been dredged up from the harbour.
Description:
Published
Description:
Vienna, Austria, 2-7 May 2010
Description:
7A. Geofisica per il monitoraggio ambientale e geologia medica
Description:
3SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Società
Description:
1VV. Altro
Keywords:
Terracina
;
Latium
;
Italy
;
microgravity survey
;
seismic survey
;
Montone hill
;
applied geophysics
;
archaeological surveys
;
roman harbour
;
pre-roman harbour
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
Conference paper
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