This paper deals with the resistivity continuous surveys on extensive area carried out at the Mont’e Prama archaeological site, in Sardinia (Italy). From 2013 to 2015, new research was performed using both non-destructive surveys and traditional archaeological excavations. The measurements were done in order to find geophysical anomalies related to unseen buried archaeological remains and to define the spatial extension of the ancient necropolis. The electrical resistivity of soils was measured by means of the Automated Resistivity Profiling (ARP©) system. This multi-pole method provided high-resolution maps of electrical resistivity in the whole investigated area using a computer-assisted acquisition tool, towed by a small vehicle. Through this acquisition layout, a surface of 22,800 m² was covered. The electrical resistivity data were derived in real time with centimetric horizontal precision through a differential GPS positioning system. Thanks to the simultaneous acquisition of ARP and GPS data, the rigorous georeferencing of the tridimensional experimental dataset was made possible, as well as the reconstruction of a detailed Digital Terrain Model. Here, the experimental results are analyzed and critically discussed by means of the integration of the results obtained by a high-resolution prospection performed with a multi-channel Ground Penetrating Radar system and taking into account other information derived from previous geological and archaeological studies. Geophysical results, jointly with topographic reconstruction, clearly permitted the identification of more interesting areas where future archaeological investigations could be focused.

In this paper, the authors present a recent integrated survey carried out on an archaeological urban site, generally free of buildings, except some temporary structures related to excavated areas where multi-chamber tombs were found. The two methods used to investigate this site were thermal infrared and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The thermography was carried out with the sensor mounted under a helium balloon simultaneously with a photographic camera. In order to have a synthetic view of the surface thermal behavior, a simplified version of the existing night thermal gradient algorithm was applied. By this approach, we have a wide extension of thermal maps due to the balloon oscillation, because we are able to compute the maps despite collecting few acquisition samples. By the integration of GPR and the thermal imaging, we can evaluate the depth of the thermal influence of possible archaeological targets, such as buried Punic tombs or walls belonging to the succeeding medieval buildings, which have been subsequently destroyed. The thermal anomalies present correspondences to the radar time slices obtained from 30 to 50 cm. Furthermore, by superimposing historical aerial pictures on the GPR and thermal imaging data, we can identify these anomalies as the foundations of the destroyed buildings.