Non-Intrusive methodologies for large Area Urban Research

This volume brings together contributions by scholars committed to illuminating ancient and medieval cities through the application of non-intrusive methods. Several of the exciting projects here speak to the extraordinary results that these methods can yield at sites which were partially or entirely abandoned. Here the capacity of remote sensing systems to visualise topography, and sometimes, to capture the pulse of urban development, can create remarkably vivid insights. Such work is driving archaeological approaches to cities in an exceptionally powerful way. The papers assembled in this volume spring from a larger conference held in association with the Rome Transformed Project. This project aims to use largely non-intrusive methods to understand the development of Rome over eight centuries (from the first to eight centuries CE). It explores 68 hectares of the city in an area that includes, alongside multiple other structures, a 1.5 km long tract of the Aurelian Walls and 0.67 kms of the Claudio-Neronian aqueduct. To achieve its goals, it integrates an extensive array of documentary sources, architectural analysis, and the investigation of 12 sub-surface excavated areas with the largest unified laser scanning and geophysical survey programme (the latter over an area of 12.5 hectares) ever conducted in Rome.