The following list contains the major projects of the Radio-Past partners, where, apart from the Open Lab in Ammaia, we are conducting research on abandoned Roman towns:
The Potenza Valley Survey (PVS) project
In 2000, Ghent University (Belgium) initiated the geo-archaeological research project Potenza Valley Survey in central Adriatic Italy (ancient Picenum). The major aim of this interdisciplinary project, under the direction of professor Frank Vermeulen, is to measure the evolution of social complexity within the valley of the river Potenza, an important landscape corridor between the Apenines and the Sea. Since 2005 a major focus of the project is the study of the urbanisation of the valley during the Roman era. The four urban sites located in this area – the colony of Potentia and the municipal towns of Ricina, Trea and Septempeda – are all quasi deserted now and the application of a wide array of non-destructive techniques contributes intensively to the study of their urbanisation and topography. Especially systematic aerial photography and total coverage geophysics, in collaboration with teams from the University of Ljubljana, the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome, has produced some remarkable results.
The Carnuntum project
Towards the end of the 19th century the lost Roman metropolis of Carnuntum aroused the interest of the scientific community. In the following decades various excavations were carried out which brought to light astonishing findings regarding the size and splendour of ancient Carnuntum, a fortified winter camp founded by the future emperor Tiberius in the year 6 AD. In 1996 the Archaeological Park Carnuntum was opened and the witnesses of the former civilian city and civilian settlement became accessible to a large public for the first time in 1500 years. Over the past few years around the Carnuntum project an interdisciplinary has gathered to revival the fasti of the Roman capital of Upper Pannonia and thanks to multimedia supports to the archaeological display it has been possible to interest more and more visitors in Carnuntum and life in Roman times: with careful reconstructions using experimental archaeology and with exciting programs.
The Mariana project
In 2004 the universities of Cassino (prof. Cristina Corsi) and Gent (prof. F. Vermeulen) initiated a systematic non-invasive survey of the deserted Roman city site of Mariana in northern Corsica. The full topography of this second most important Roman town of the island (after Alesia) was never studied before and much remained unknown about its exact location, size and organisation. The application of a series of geophysical surveys (e.g. fine resolution GPR), remote sensing operations and GIS based study of historical cartography and aerial photographs have now revealed major parts of the very normalised layout of imperial Mariana.
Portus project
The Portus project.
Boeotia project
The Ancient Cities of Boeotia project
