Geophysical surveys for lagoon archeology: Possibilities and prospects|INDAGINI GEOFISICHE PER L’ARCHEOLOGIA LAGUNARE: POSSIBILITÀ E PROSPETTIVE*

Geophysical prospections have been part of the survey tools available for archaeological research for decades. Today, most of the survey techniques known in the geological field are also applied in the archaeological research by their non-invasive-ness and ability to provide essential information on the loca-tion and extent of buried structures of interest, even over vast areas. The fields of application of geophysical survey techniques for archaeological purposes range from land (e.g. rural, urban or coastal contexts) to semi-and submerged environments, which include fresh, salt or brackish water and humid or shal-low water areas. The latter is part of the lagoon environment, the complexity of which limits and sometimes precludes the use of specific techniques generally used on dry land and requires the adoption of expedients during the data acquisition phase, compared to other ordinary contexts. Therefore, we here describe the main prospecting methodologies applied to date for archaeological research in the lagoon areas, pro-viding a general, albeit not exhaustive, picture of the potential and limits in this specific field of application through some references to the literature and a few case studies, referring to the specific literature on the subject for any necessary and more detailed information.