Integrated geophysical, archaeological and geological surveys for the characterization of Tusculum archaeological site (Rome, Italy)

Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in the Alban Hills, located in the Latium region of Italy, about 25 km south-east of the city of Rome. This settlement was inhabited since pre-Roman times, up to the middle ages. The objective of the project is to characterise Tusculum site from archaeological and geoarchaeological point of views. With these aims a multimethodological geophysical surveys have been carried out during summer and winter 2016 to locate the archaeological remains in a portion of a studied area and to reconstruct the orientation of underground aqueduct system. GPR and gradiometric surveys were carried out to investigate the archaeological remains, while ERT surveys, with different electrode arrays, were employed to find evidence of undiscovered parts of an underground aqueduct system. These results, together with geological studies and historic evidence, were used to try to understand how water was supplied to such a large, populated settlement.