Geophysical measurements on the acropolis archaeological area of Gela, Italy

Abstract

In this contribution, the main results of a GPR prospecting [1-2] performed in the archaeological site of Gela, Sicily, Italy, will be shown. In antiquity Gela was one of the most important Greek colonies in Sicily. The purpose of our contribution is to show how the multidisciplinary interaction between different competencies (geophysical and archaeological in the case study at hand) can make the results more significant and more able to foresee conclusions of possible interest. In particular, four small areas have been prospected in the area of Molino a Vento, that is the acropolis of the ancient city of Gela, and, as it will be shown, the achieved GPR slices becomes quite more significant when inserted in the archaeological map implemented by the archaeologists and based on the previous studies and excavations performed in this site [3]. In particular, some anomalies visible in the GPR slices matches quite well with a north-south street that probably crossed the prolongation of the east-west main street (the so-called plateia), making us think that the ancient urban plan really prolonged up to the prospected area. If verified with localised excavations, this feature would change some of the assessed certainties about the extension of the Greek settlement.