Marine Archaeogeophysical Prospection of Roman Salapia Settlement (Puglia, Italy): Detecting Ancient Harbour Remains

The Gulf of Manfredonia and the Tavoliere Plain have experienced intense human colonization since the neolithic times. There is past evidence in the study area of a Roman-age settlement historically known as Salapia, probably located close to the salt-production ponds. In particular, several portions of a partly submerged ancient pier-like structure were found close to Torre Pietra town. This structure has been interpreted as a portion of a dragged-ship channel that connected the town of Salapia to the sea. In this article we discuss the results of a high-resolution geophysical prospecting of the Margherita di Savoia offshore archaeological site (Puglia, Italy). We collected magnetic gradiometric and bathymetric data to map the submerged remains of Salapia harbour. We found evidence of an offshore projection of a Torre Pietra pier-like structure, identifying the direction of the ship channel and possibly the location of the harbour's defensive post. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Desmond FitzGerald,et al.  New discrimination techniques for Euler deconvolution , 2004, Comput. Geosci..

[2]  C. Doglioni,et al.  A proposal for the kinematic modelling of W-dipping subductions - possible applications to the Tyrrhenian-Apennines system , 1991 .

[3]  Robert W. Simpson,et al.  Approximating edges of source bodies from magnetic or gravity anomalies , 1986 .

[4]  Lindrith Cordell,et al.  Mapping Basement Magnetization Zones From Aeromagnetic Data In the San Juan Basin, New Mexico , 1982 .

[5]  Environmental magneto-gradiometric marine survey in a highly anthropic noisy area , 2009 .

[6]  R. Blakely.  Potential theory in gravity and magnetic applications , 1996 .

[7]  M. Ciminale,et al.  High-resolution marine magnetic surveys for searching underwater cultural resources , 2006 .

[8]  N. Cressie.  The origins of kriging , 1990 .

[9]  Vladimir Baranov,et al.  Numerical calculation of the formula of reduction to the magnetic pole , 1964 .

[10]  M. Caldara,et al.  Holocene Evolution of the Salpi Lagoon (Puglia, Italy) , 2002, Journal of Coastal Research.

[11]  Walter R. Roest,et al.  Magnetic interpretation using the 3-D analytic signal , 1992 .

[12]  Avner Raban,et al.  Marine Magnetic Survey of a Submerged Roman Harbour, Caesarea Maritima, Israel , 2004 .

[13]  E. Patacca,et al.  Post-Tortonian mountain building in the Apennines. The role of the passive sinking of a relic lithospheric slab , 1987 .

[14]  C. Carmisciano,et al.  The revised aeromagnetic anomaly map of Italy , 2004 .

[15]  José E. Ortiz,et al.  Stratigraphic units of the Apulian Tavoliere plain (Southern Italy): Chronology, correlation with marine isotope stages and implications regarding vertical movements , 2010 .

[16]  Enrico Dinelli,et al.  Geochemistry and particle size of surface sediments of Gulf of Manfredonia (Southern Adriatic sea) , 2008 .

[17]  Maurizio Fedi,et al.  Magnetic survey at the submerged archaeological site of Baia, Naples, southern Italy , 2005 .

[18]  M. Bencivenga,et al.  The Newtonian approach in meteorological tide waves forecasting: preliminary observations in the East Ligurian harbours , 2006 .

[19]  N. Linford.  The application of geophysical methods to archaeological prospection , 2006 .

[20]  D. T. Thompson,et al.  EULDPH: A new technique for making computer-assisted depth estimates from magnetic data , 1982 .

[21]  M. Nabighian.  Toward a three‐dimensional automatic interpretation of potential field data via generalized Hilbert transforms: Fundamental relations , 1984 .

[22]  I. W. Somerton,et al.  Magnetic interpretation in three dimensions using Euler deconvolution , 1990 .

[23]  Marcello Spanu,et al.  Paesaggi sepolti in Daunia. John Bradford e la ricerca archeologica dal cielo (1945-1957) , 2008 .

[24]  A. Chulliat,et al.  International Geomagnetic Reference Field: the eleventh generation , 2010 .

[25]  W. Ryan,et al.  Extension in the Tyrrhenian Sea and shortening in the Apennines as result of arc migration driven by sinking of the lithosphere , 1986 .

[26]  M. Caldara,et al.  Coastal changes in the eastern Tavoliere Plain (Apulia, Italy) during the Late Holocene: Natural or anthropic? , 2005 .

[27]  S. Cheyney,et al.  Advantages to Using the Pseudogravity Transformation to Aid Edge Detection of Total Field Archaeomagnetic Datasets , 2011 .