Indagini geomorfologiche e geoarcheologiche nel sito romano di Altino (Quarto d'Altino, Venezia).

Located along the inner margin of the northern part of Venetian Lagoon, crossed by the consular road known as via Annia, is Altinum, a unique example of an ancient Roman city in Italy. After being abandoned in Middle Ages, the city was sacked and stripped of its materials. Then slowly, the foundations were buried by the lagoon and rivers sediments. Many areas and structures such as roads, foundations of large buildings, canals and the port had been initially identified through methods such as remote sensing and ground penetrating radar through previous research. The knowledge gathered so far was used to precisely identify the study area for this analysis. Sediments in the area of archaeological sites of Altino provide an invaluable source of information on paleoenvironments and past human activities. Resorting to minimally invasive in-situ geological techniques, like core sampling, the research team was able to improve the understanding of the sediment layers. To obtain these observations, cross-section core drilling lines were performed perpendicularly to the supposed course of the canal. Data such as composition, texture, and structure of the sediments has been retrieved and successfully used to reconstruct the ancient profile and route of the Roman canal bed.