Geophysical prospecting for the detection of buried and shallow submerged archaeological sites of Roman Period in the Lagoon of Venice (Italy)

We present the application of marine electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), marine drone-based multibeam and sub-bottom profiler prospecting for the detection of archeological targets of Roman period in shallow lagoon environments with very low visibility inland water. Marine ERT, sub-bottom and multibeam were applied in the Northern part of the Venice Lagoon, Italy, to map the extension of previously reported and suspected archeological sites. High resolution ERT coupled with light drone multibeam and compact sub-bottom efficiently highlight the targets extension, despite the shallow water challenging environment that strongly limit the use of common marine geophysical surveys. The results were confirmed by direct underwater survey and investigation carried out by underwater archeologists, confirming the potential of the applied geophysical techniques.