Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Ghent in Belgium used breakthrough ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to detect previously unrevealed details of buildings still deep underground, including a temple and a distinctive public monument.
The technology was used at Falerii Novi, a walled city spanning 30.5 hectares around 50 kilometres north of Rome, researchers said.
The ancient city was founded in 241 BC, during the time of the Roman Republic, and was inhabited until around AD 700 in the early Middle Ages.
The project marked the first time a complete ancient city was mapped using GPR, which lets researchers explore large-scale archaeological sites without excavation.
The groundbreaking technology saves both money and time.
The results of the project were published on Monday in the academic journal Antiquity.
Falerii Novi is already well documented, hasn’t been covered by modern buildings, and has been the studied for decades using other non-invasive techniques, such as magnetometry, but GPR has now revealed a far more complete picture.
With a population of perhaps 3000 people, it boasted an unexpectedly elaborate public bath complex and market building, at least 60 large houses and a rectangular temple with columns near the city’s south gate.
Near the north gate was a public monument unlike any other known, with a colonnaded portico on three sides and a large open square measuring 40 by 90 metres.
Falerii Novi had a network of water pipes running beneath the city blocks and not just along streets, indicating coordinated city planning.
Researchers said it could take several months to work through the latest data collected to learn more about the city.
