Pisa’s subsurface conceals walls, floors, tombs and roads: the traces of life that the city has left behind in almost 3000 years of history. These remains – for the greater part unknown – must coexist with the life needs of modern inhabited areas. MAPPA is a project in the framework of which archaeologists, geologists and mathematicians combine their expertise to study predictive calculation instruments applied to the archaeological potential of the city of Pisa. The archaeological potential of an area is a parameter that quantifies the possibility that a more or less significant archaeological stratification is preserved in an unexplored area. In the urban and periurban area of Pisa a geomorphological survey mainly based on evidence from remote sensing analyses was carried out. It was complemented by subsurface data from 18 cores ranging in depth between 7 and 15 m, analyzed through an interdisciplinary approach. Depositional facies were reconstructed through integration of sedimentological, micropalaeontological, palinological and geochemical data, and chronologically constrained by extensive radiocarbon dating. Geophysical prospecting supported the reconstruction of palaeo-drainage network. The acquired data improved our knowledge about the palaeoenvironmental and human settlement evolution of Pisa area over the past 6000 years, highlighting the mutual interaction between landscape and human activities. The MAPPA web-GIS is the digital mapping instrument used for the free publication of archaeological, geological and geomorphological data, obtained in the framework of MAPPA activities, on the web. On the basis of predefined parameters and a specific mathematic calculation, the map of archaeological information has been developed in order to evaluate possible remains buried in areas for which there is no existing information today.

A geoarchaeological approach for assessing the archaeological potential in the city of Pisa (NW Italy)

BINI, MONICA;BINI, DARIO ANDREA;FABIANI F.;GATTIGLIA, GABRIELE;GUALANDI, MARIA LETIZIA;PAPPALARDO, MARTA;SARTI, GIOVANNI;STEFFE', SERGIO
2013-01-01

Abstract

Pisa’s subsurface conceals walls, floors, tombs and roads: the traces of life that the city has left behind in almost 3000 years of history. These remains – for the greater part unknown – must coexist with the life needs of modern inhabited areas. MAPPA is a project in the framework of which archaeologists, geologists and mathematicians combine their expertise to study predictive calculation instruments applied to the archaeological potential of the city of Pisa. The archaeological potential of an area is a parameter that quantifies the possibility that a more or less significant archaeological stratification is preserved in an unexplored area. In the urban and periurban area of Pisa a geomorphological survey mainly based on evidence from remote sensing analyses was carried out. It was complemented by subsurface data from 18 cores ranging in depth between 7 and 15 m, analyzed through an interdisciplinary approach. Depositional facies were reconstructed through integration of sedimentological, micropalaeontological, palinological and geochemical data, and chronologically constrained by extensive radiocarbon dating. Geophysical prospecting supported the reconstruction of palaeo-drainage network. The acquired data improved our knowledge about the palaeoenvironmental and human settlement evolution of Pisa area over the past 6000 years, highlighting the mutual interaction between landscape and human activities. The MAPPA web-GIS is the digital mapping instrument used for the free publication of archaeological, geological and geomorphological data, obtained in the framework of MAPPA activities, on the web. On the basis of predefined parameters and a specific mathematic calculation, the map of archaeological information has been developed in order to evaluate possible remains buried in areas for which there is no existing information today.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/255536
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