Non-Invasive Prospection Methods in the Roman City of Balsa (Luz de Tavira-Portugal): Revealing the Real Townscape

João Pedro Bernardes (), Isabel Rondán Sevilla, Celso Candeias and Manuel Ruiz Barroso
Additional contact information
João Pedro Bernardes: CEAACP, Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
Isabel Rondán Sevilla: Área de Historia Antigua, Universidad de Cádiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
Celso Candeias: Câmara Municipal de Tavira, Praça da República, 8800-951 Tavira, Portugal
Manuel Ruiz Barroso: Área de Historia Antigua, Universidad de Cádiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: Ever since Estácio da Veiga, at the end of the 19th century, identified the ruins of the Roman city of Balsa under Torre d’Aires estate (Luz de Tavira-Portugal) and its surroundings, the scientific questions about this Roman city have been constantly increasing. Despite the historical importance of this city, referenced in classical literature, the archaeological knowledge about it remains very scarce due to the difficulties around implementing any durable scientific research projects. Therefore, much of that written about the topographical features and configuration of the city has no unequivocal scientific support. Finally, 2019 saw the launch of this ongoing project “Balsa, searching for the origins of the Algarve”, which aims to ascertain the main features concerning the city’s extent and configuration, mainly through non-invasive methods. Since 2017, geomagnetic and geo-radar surveys have spanned several hectares and successfully identified many traces of the Roman city while discarding the existence of others in certain locations. In the last two years, the geo-radar surveys have intensified and established the boundaries to the Roman city as well as parts of its layout, remnants of buildings, and even fossilised agricultural crops in addition to other geophysical anomalies, whether or not they are subsequently confirmed by diagnostic pits.

Keywords: geophysical surveys; GPR; Roman maritime town; Lusitania province (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1785/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1785/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:10:p:1785-:d:941411

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().