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Historic landscape and cultural heritage are often integrated into a system of protection and valorisation through the global approach of archaeology and landscape archaeology. This system is conceived as a territorial study collecting all the evidence of human presence and its history, allowing the assessment of the historical and archaeological component through evolutionary dynamics. Therefore the study of landscape archaeology is central to the design and programming of territorial works. The “landscape system”, the result of the coexistence of environmental and human dynamics, has meant that territorial transformation processes have become the object of scientific interest assuming considerable political importance. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of a geophysical prospections for a map of the archaeological potential of the territory of Flumeri in Avellino, Italy. This diagnostic contribution was designed to give a distinctive and better representation of the territory. The scientific approach chosen for this project is the result of a multidisciplinary convergence: bibliographical and archival research, analysis of topographic and photogrammetric surveys, systematic investigations of the territory and geophysical survey. These diverse non-invasive geophysical methods allowed us to define and detail the archaeological potential of the studied area in a better way; by defining micro-areas of geophysical survey starting with defining macro-areas of high archaeological potential. This approach has a double value: the geophysical surveys serve as a support for the archaeological knowledge of the area and the archaeological knowledge helps towards the identification of areas for geophysical survey.

International audience; Objects of this study are the wooden artifacts discovered in the archaeological excavation of Mephitis goddess sanctuary in the Ansanto Valley (Rocca San Felice e AV, Southern Italy). At the moment of discovery, in the mid of last century, woods were waterlogged and mineralized, and they were restored to allow their preservation. Purpose of this work was the wood identification, in order to gain information on some technological aspects, and the analysis of wood preservation state. Wood species were identified by means of magnifiers or optical and scanning electron microscopes, while the state of preservation was studied through microscopy and chemical analyses (FTIR-ATR, ash content and pH measurement). Four different taxa have been identified with certainty among all the findings: Quercus sp., Fagus sylvatica L., Rosaceae, Populus/Salix. It was not possible to identify the wood of all the findings, because some sampled fragments were too small or because of the deformation of wood tissues. The state of preservation showed a great variability over the analyzed findings. A general damage degree was observed, sometimes also macroscopically visible. The polarized light microscope and FTIRATR spectroscopy demonstrated the absence of cellulose in the analyzed samples. The wood cell wall was not detectable by means of SEM because it is completely covered by restoration material. Because of the lack of visibility, it was impossible to identify the type of biological damage occurred to the wood.

The Ansanto Valley (southern Italy) is characterized by hydrothermal phenomena, with volcanic gas emissions arising from some vents. In the 1 st millennium BC, a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Mephitis was built but later destroyed by landslides in the valley. During archaeological excavations in the 1950s, many items were found including wooden artifacts, preserved thanks to the imbibition and subsequent mineralization of the wood tissues due to the gas emissions. Radiocarbon dating of these objects is underway at CIRCE (Centre for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental Heritage), in Caserta, Italy. Unfortunately, 2 main problems arise in dating these materials. The first is possible fossil dilution caused by the CO2 emitted from the nearby volcanic vents, which could affect the trees of the valley and also the archaeological materials. In order to determine the magnitude of the fossil dilution in the area, 14C measurements were performed on contemporaneous wood cored from 2 oak trees growing near the vents. 14C values measured in these samples confirmed the presence of a strong fossil dilution in the Ansanto Valley. The second problem is the restoration that the objects underwent during the last century (mostly by using modern organic substances). To investigate suitable pretreatment procedures for removing the restoration materials from the archaeological findings, contemporaneous wood was also analyzed. The wood of trees from the Ansanto Valley and from a distant village (unaffected by the Ansanto fossil dilution) were submitted to the same restoration process applied to the archaeological artifacts, followed by an “artificial weathering” process. Some archaeological materials were also tested for the removal of restoration materials. We subjected the artificially aged trees and the archaeological samples to different chemical processes. Here, we present the results of these processes. Almost all methods turned out to be suitable for the contemporaneous wood, while the results for the archaeological samples remain uncertain. For this reason, more tests are needed, concerning the “artificial weathering,” the restoration, and the chemical procedure for removing the consolidation materials.

The paper shows integrated research activities at the ancient site of Aequum Tuticum: Archaeological investigations, geophysical prospecting, remote sensing

Il lavoro, frutto di una ricerca di una indagine diretta sul campo condotta nell'area a nord del Volturno del comune di Bellona (CE), esamina le evidenze archeologiche emerse attraverso l'uso degli strumenti propri della disciplina topografica.Si segnala in particolare l'analisi aerofotografica effettuata sui contesti che ha portato l'autrice ad un riesame e ad una migliore contestualizzazione di strutture ed elementi archeologici noti da vecchi studi, opportunamente integrati, quando se ne disponeva, anche con i dati emersi da saggi di scavo mirati diretti dall'autrice stessa.

Il contributo prende in esame le evidenze archeologiche del territorio di Sturno ricadenti nel settore meridionale della Valle dell'Ufita