ADRIAN ȘERBĂNESCU, MIRCEA NEGRU, LAURENȚIU-GERARD GUȚICĂ-FLORESCU, Geophysical survey and research excavation at Romula-Central Fort. Assessing the effectiveness of ERT results based on the 2019 excavation results

ADRIAN ȘERBĂNESCU
PhD, ArchaeoScience#RO, Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), University of Bucharest, Romania SC Terra Data Surveys SRL;
E-mail: adrian.serbanescu@ymail.com

MIRCEA NEGRU
Conf. univ. PhD, Department of Law, Political and Administrative Sciences, Spiru Haret University Bucharest, Romania / Faculty of History – Center for Comparative Studies of Ancient Societies, University of Bucharest, Romania;
E-mail: mnegru.ist@spiruharet.r

LAURENȚIU-GERARD GUȚICĂ-FLORESCU
PhD, Olt County Museum, Slatina;
E-mail: laurgutica@yahoo.com

Abstract
Romula, once a flourishing colonia of the Roman Empire and capital of Dacia Inferior and later of Dacia Malvensis, lies buried under the village of Resca. The Central fortification area where the initial castrum was is now an archaeological protected site of the highest importance. Here, Legio VII Claudia and Legio XXII Primigenia among others stationed troops. Buildings in the centre of this Roman city have been looted over the centuries and revealing its internal structure and organization can be difficult because of displacement and destruction of structures. Over large areas, dismantled walls are spread within the first 0.5 m in the soil and can be an obstacle in conducting non-invasive research. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a delineation survey by means of Electrical Resistivity Tomography, a non-invasive geophysical prospection technique used widely in research on Roman period sites. Having the possibility to compare our survey results from June 2019 to those of the research excavation conducted later that year (August 2019), that targeted a large resistive body present in the geophysical data, we found that the ERT method was successful in accurately locating anomalies later identified as being the walls of a large building with the bonus of another wall adjacent to it, implying a more complex internal organization than initially assumed. The survey helped delineate multiple anomalies associated with structures which is a first step in reconstructing the layout of the centre of the Roman colonia Romula.

Keywords
Romula, interdisciplinary study, Roman period, archaeological excavation, geophysical investigations.