Falerii Novi was founded in 241 BC during the time of the Roman Republic and was inhabited until around 700 AD in the early Middle Ages.
In a glimpse into the future of archaeology, researchers have used ground-penetrating radar to map an entire ancient Roman city, detecting remarkable details of buildings still deep underground including a temple and a unique public monument. The technology was used at Falerii Novi, a walled city spanning 75 acres (30.5 hectares) about 30 miles (50 km) north of Rome, researchers said on Monday.
It marked the first time a complete ancient city was mapped using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which lets researchers explore large-scale archaeological sites expeditiously without excavation, which can be costly and time-consuming.
The technology can "see" beneath the surface using a radar antenna that sends a pulsed radio signal into the ground and listens for the echoes bouncing off objects. The GPR equipment was pulled over the surface using an all-terrain vehicle.
Falerii Novi, not quite half the size of ancient Pompeii, had previously been partially excavated but most remained buried. With a population of perhaps 3,000 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.
"This took one person about three to four months in the field," said Martin Millett, a University of Cambridge classical archaeology professor who helped lead the study published in the journal Antiquity. "This really does change how we can study and understand Roman towns - the way of the future for archaeology."
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 130 by 300 feet (40 by 90 meters). Falerii Novi had a network of water pipes running beneath the city blocks and not just along streets, indicating coordinated city planning.
