Various:
How do you map a city with no visible ruins?In July 2007,
during a severe drought, Paolo Mozzi, a geomorphologist at the
University of
Padua in Italy, and his team took aerial photos of Altinum,
a Roman trading center that thrived between the 1st and 5th
centuries CE, that lay beneath farm fields close to Venice,
reports the
BBC
and
ScienceNow. The photos were taken in several
wavelengths of visible light and in near-infrared, with a
resolution of half a meter.
Above left is a digitally enhanced false-color composite
image (NIR, red and green spectral bands) of the center of
Altinum, with maize and soy crop marks. The right image is the
interpretation of left image. Credit:
Andrea
Ninfo et al.,
Science (31 July 2009)When the images were
processed to tease out subtle variations in plant water stress,
a buried metropolis emerged. Lighter crops traced the outlines
of buildings—including a basilica, an amphitheater, a
forum, and what may have been temples—buried at least 40
centimeters below the surface. To the south of the city center
runs a wide strip of riper crops. They were growing above what
clearly used to be a canal, an indication that Venice's Roman
forebears were already incorporating waterways into their urban
fabric.
Related Links
The
Map of Altinum, Ancestor of Venice
Science
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reveal Venice 'forerunner' BBC
Ancient
Roman City Rises Again
ScienceNow
