Counting the finds, measuring the properties of soil: Archaeological diagnostics in the suburbium of a Roman town

Ammaia is a deserted Roman town located in the region of Alto Alentejo, in Portugal, included in ancient province of Lusitania. In recent years, a series of geophysical surveys have been carried out in the framework of the European Community (EC) funded project Radio-Past, in the supposed intra-mural surface and suburbia. A ‘total coverage’ magnetometer survey was achieved by several teams, using different instruments in an around the ancient town. The selected sectors have been investigated with high-resolution Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and earth resistance methods, revealing a highly detailed layout of the town with its most important monuments and infrastructures and disclosing crucial aspects of the surrounding humanized landscape of Roman times. These data have been integrated with different other non-destructive geo-archaeological methodologies. Here the interpretation of geomagnetic survey, aerial photography and surface artefact collection are discussed with respect to the main results and to certain data-integration strategies.