FDEM and ERT measurements for archaeological prospections at Nuraghe S'Urachi (West-Central Sardinia)

Nuraghe S'Urachi is a monumental architectural complex in West Central Sardinia that was probably first built in the Bronze Age and remained occupied continuously into the early Roman Imperial period. It has been the object of systematic and large-scale archaeological investigations in three different phases since 1948 when the first excavations revealed a complex building within a massive defensive wall and multiple towers. Intermittent fieldwork between the 1980s and 2005 subsequently showed that the central nuraghe might comprise up to five principal towers. In 2013, a new collaborative research project, sponsored by Brown University and the Municipality of San Vero Milis, brought together a multidisciplinary research project to investigate this important archaeological site. In this framework, multi-frequency and multi-coil electromagnetic measurements (FDEM) and Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were carried out in 2018, 2019, and 2020, over and close to the nuraghe towers, to gain a better understanding of the inner part of the main structure and to investigate the surrounding area that was intensively settled in Phoenician and Punic times. The preliminary results of the geophysical measurements provide new and interesting evidence that supports new hypotheses and suggests possible future archaeological and geophysical strategies to investigate the unexcavated part of the archaeological site of S'Urachi.

Automated summary

Nuraghe S'Urachi is a monumental architectural complex in West Central Sardinia that has been the subject of systematic and large-scale archaeological investigations since 1948. The preliminary results of the geophysical measurements provide new evidence to support new hypotheses and suggest possible future archaeological and geophysical strategies for investigating the unexcavated part of the site.