Seeing Altinum after more than 1500 years

JUL 31, 2009

Physics Today

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.

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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 Maps reveal Venice ‘forerunner’ BBC Ancient Roman City Rises Again ScienceNow