A prototype of reconfigurable stepped frequency GPR system has been implemented in the framework of the research project AITECH, financed by the Puglia Region (http://www.aitechnet.com/home.html). The prototype has been realized in collaboration between the Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage (IBAM-CNR), the IDS Corporation and the University of Florence, and is now part of the equipment of the Laboratory of applied geophysics to archaeology and monumental heritage (http://www.ibam.cnr.it/pdf/Persico%20in.pdf). The reconfigurability is a theoretically appealing possibility, under study thanks to the availability of this prototypal system. In particular, several case histories have been studied and other ones will be studied in the next years in order to test the reconfigurable system in several situations and under different conditions. The general aim of this work in progress is not only to assess the possibilities of the instrument but also to identify its main limits in order to plan, possibly, the implementation of suitable modifications for the enhancement of its performances. In this papers, some results in sites of cultural interests will be shown, in comparison with the results achieved from a commercial pulsed GPR system. The emphasis is on the benefits of gathering three bands at the same time, related to the kind of anomaly and environment met in the case history at hand.

Despite the large number of monumental tombs discovered over the years in Taranto, only a few among them are open to the public for in situ visits. Actually, in most cases the visit is precluded because the sites are placed below private buildings or urban roads. However, as often happens, they are affected, for various reasons, by another inevitable trouble: the artefacts preserved inside them until the discover, have been subsequently brought into some museums whereas the monumental structures have been restored, in most cases with provisional works, in order to prevent their collapse. The consequence of this moving, is the de-contextualization of the grave goods and the lack of valorisation of monumental archaeological contexts. An effective solution for these issues could be achieved from the use of technologies that allow a virtual enjoyment of these monuments and the virtual set-up of the grave goods in their original contexts. Based on these premises, thanks to the project CNR-IBAM "Marta Racconta. Storie Virtuali di Tesori Nascosti", co-financed by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia, the National ARchaeological Museum of TAranto (MARTA) will be soon equipped with the installation of a Virtual Platform. This will make 'accessible' ancient monuments from the Greek Taras (the ancient Taranto) currently closed to visitors. In particular, three very interesting monuments have been identified in close cooperation with the Superintendent and with the direction of the Museum of Taranto. The first one is the so-called Tomb of the Festoons, that was found in Via Crispi at the beginning of the last century. At present, it is placed inside a private apartment under the ground floor of a building. The second one, called the Hypogeum of the Gorgons, was discovered some years ago in Via Otranto, but it is now placed below a road pavement. The archaeological and archaeometric studies carried out on these monuments made it possible to develop a wide path of knowledge ranging from funerary rituals to construction techniques.

With ancient monuments, it often happens thatfollowing their discovery components of them have to be moved,albeit temporarily, to museums in order to carry out restorationwork. In the case of funerary contexts, a consequence of this is thede-contextualization of grave goods and furnishings, making itimpossible to convey the significance of the archaeologicalmonument as a whole. An effective solution to this problem can beachieved by using technology to provide virtual experiences inwhich the grave goods, for example, are virtually restored to theiroriginal contexts.This paper presents the "Marta Racconta. Storie Virtuali diTesori Nascosti" project, co-financed by the Fondazione Cassa diRisparmio di Puglia, undertaken by CNR-IBAM (Lecce, Italy) inorder to install a virtual platform in the National ArchaeologicalMuseum of Taranto (MARTA). The project aims to make'accessible' ancient monuments from the Greek Taras (the ancientTaranto), such as the Twin Tombs Monumental Complex, theTomb of the Festoons, and the Hypogeum of the Gorgons,discovered some years ago in Via Otranto. The first two of the thesemonuments are closed to the public, while the third was filled inand is currently located below a road.From a technological point of view, a real time 3D platform forimmersive stereoscopic visiting was developed, with a navigationsystem using a 'natural interface' and commands executed withsimple hand gestures. Using this technology, visitors will be able tofollow an integrated knowledge itinerary based on heterogeneouscontent including historical and archaeological data and the resultsof archaeometric analyses. This involves spatial navigation within ahyper-realistic environment where it will be possible to interact withthe 3D structures, to query the database and to interact with thegrave goods.

In this work, we focus the attention on the settlement of Badia, in the Apulia region, where archaeological remains, dating back to Late Antiquity and Early Madieval Age, have been studied. Integrated investigations (archaeological, geophysical and archaeometric) have been conducted to understand the historical dynamics and reconstruction the rural landscape.

The present study was aimed at investigating, by FT-IR spectroscopy, residues in some wholearchaeological vases, different in form and dimensions, but all classified as containers for cosmetics.The analyses performed on the as-sampled material and after extraction with a solvent were examinedand compared. The results highlighted dissimilar composition of the residues for containers differentin shape and provenance. Lipids, vegetable resins, and proteinaceous compound were identified.Also some inorganic products (such as calcite or clay minerals) were found as intended ingredientsof the cosmetic preparations.The FT-IR spectroscopy provided a simple, quick and cheap analytical method, which allowsobtaining reliable and sound data using a limited preparation of the samples. In addition, thistechnique was found very useful in case of these unbroken precious artifacts, where damage hasto be avoided.

Des travaux récents de rénovation dans le palais de l'évêque sur la colline d'Oria ont mis au jour quelques restes d'un imposant édifice d'époque proto-hellénistique, y compris une mosaïque de galets polychromes importés, figurant l'assaut d'un lion à un cerf. Un pavement dont le haut niveau artistique ne trouve aucune comparaison en Italie Méridionale et en Sicile, mais plutôt dans les appareils décoratifs de maisons et des palais grecs du premier hellénisme à Athènes, Erétrie, Corinthe et surtout à Pella en Macédoine. En se fondant sur les parallèles stylistiques et iconographiques, on peut supposer qu'il a été fait dans le dernier tiers du IVe siècle par des artistes grecs, dans le cadre d'un vaste programme de construction intéressant l'acropole de la ville messapienne. Sa présence à Oria peut être rapprochée de ce que nous dit Strabon (6, 3, 6) sur l'existence dans la ville d'un basileion, c'est-à-dire du palais royal, "d'un des anciens dynastes". Tout ceci témoigne probablement d'un rôle important joué par la ville à l'époque de l'expédition en Italie d'Alexandre le Molosse, roi d'Épire, et dans les accords politiques conclus par lui avec les Messapiens.

In questa sede vengono presentati gli intonaci dipinti relativi agli apparati decorativi parietali di alcuni edifici romani messi in luce in due zone del centro urbano brindisino, la prima localizzata con il Tempio di San Giovanni al Sepolcro e la seconda con l'Area di San Pietro degli Schiavoni. Tali rinvenimenti documentano per la prima volta la presenza di domus, databili al II secolo, con pareti dipinte secondo gli schemi pittorici riferibili al III stile.

In this paper the relevance of preventive archaeology is outlined with specific reference to the case history of Ruvo di Puglia, Italy. Geophysical prospection has identified anomalies of possible relevant archaeological interest.

In the sea off San Pietro in Bevagna, located 50km SE of Taranto (Southern Italy), was found a Roman cargo of marble sarcophagi, wrecked in the III century A.D. It lays on the bottom, in 3 to 6 m of water, 70 m off the beach and Chidro river mouth. The twenty white marble sarcophagi are unfinished artefacts. There are two different groups: ten sarcophagi are of rectangular form; the others are of the type called lenos, with round ends and projecting bosses, that could be carved as busts or lion heads. The sarcophagi are of large and small size. Both types of sarcophagi were attested in Roman imperial age. On the samples taken from lenoi and rectangular sarcophagi a mineralogical-petrographical study and determination of ?C13 and ?O18 isotopes were performed. The analytical data established that both types of sarcophagi are in dolomitic marble from Thasian quarries of Cape Vathy-Saliara.

Il presente lavoro offre un contributo allo studio dell'archeologia dei luoghi di culto della Messapia. Presenta votivi, in particolare terrecotte, conservati a Mesagne nel Museo Archeologico "Ugo Granafei". Questi oggetti sono frutto di rinvenimenti causali effettuati sul sito di Casino Guardiano nel territorio del centro moderno di di Mesagne dove, attualmente, insistono tre centri antichi: Mesagne, Muro Maurizio e Muro Tenente. I rinvenimenti archeologici indicano due diverse fasi di occupazione del sito. La più antica è databile tra la fine del V e III secolo a.C., ed è documentata dalla ceramica a vernice nera, dai vasi in ceramica messapica decorata e terrecotte votive che testimoniano l'aspetto culturale della frequentazione. Il secondo è legato alla presenza di una villa rustica romana, il cui periodo di vita è compreso tra il I e il -IV secolo d.C. La posizione del sito è simile a quella di altri santuari caratterizzati dalla presenza di cavità, grotte e sorgenti d'acqua. Le protomi femminili suggeriscono un luogo di culto frequentato da donne e consacrato ad una divinità femminile. La scoperta nei tre centri messapici di un certo numero di iscrizioni che ricordano Demetra permette di identificarsi con questa divinità la dea venerata in questo piccolo santuario.

In the last few years the environment has constituted a themes of great interest in Europe and in the world, in the framework of the sustainable development of the territories. The relationship between humankind and environment is also essential in order to understand the history of the ancient civilizations. Nowadays, archaeology makes use of advanced methodologies and technologies aimed to the study, the knowledge and the reconstruction of the historical European and Mediterranean landscapes. In Italy, the great variety of different environmental conditions offers a meaningful opportunity for the study of the rural scenarios between the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The settlement framework of the southern part of the Apulia region (Italy) results to be quite rich with regard to the Classical period, whereas it has been enhancing only during the last few years with regard to the Late Antiquity and the Medieval Age. In this region, that has been called Terra d'Otranto starting from the Middle Ages, some archaeological excavations in sample areas have revealed a more detailed and documented picture of the settlements in the territory and of its dynamic transformation. In this context, geophysics, archaeometry and virtual reality can found large application. In particular, with regard to the regional transformation dynamics of the settlements between Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, the archaeological site of Contrada Badia, placed north-west of today Cutrofiano (in the outskirts of Lecce) is of great interest. Here, an archaeological survey on an area of about 50 hectares has recorded the human frequentation of this area from Bronze Age to Middle Ages. More specifically, two interesting sites have been identified, placed on the two sides of a street leading to the modern town: the first one is deemed to be a rural settlement of the Imperial and Late Antiquity Age, whereas the second one seems to be the site of a medieval abbey. In order to characterize the expected buried structures (and partially already identified by means of aerial photography data) in both sites, a ground penetrating radar (GPR) prospecting has been scheduled and partially already done. The data have been gathered with a pulsed Ris-Hi mode system belonging to the Laboratory of Geophysics applied to Cultural Heritage of IBAM-CNR equipped with a double antenna at 200 and 600 MHz, and have been processed by means of the GPR-Slice software. The present work was carried out within the research project PRIN 2010-2011 (prot.2010H8WPKL-001), UR (CNR-IBAM ) "Innovative Methods for the Reconstruction of the Landscape of Terra d'Otranto between Late Antiquity and Middle Ages".

Il presente lavoro illustra una notevole scoperta archeologica avvenuta recentemente ad Oria durante i lavori di ristrutturazione del piano terra dell'Episcopio. E' stata messa in luce una struttura costituita da un muro a grandi blocchi conservato per un'altezza di oltre 2m. Il paramento interno mostra una raffinata decorazione dipinta confrontabile con gli apparati decorativi dei palazzi ellenistici greci. E' stato rinvenuto un raffinato mosaico a ciottoli policromo, figurato con la scena di un leone che assale un cervide. I materiali costituenti i ciottoli bianchi (marmo) sono d'importazione. Anche per questo interessantissimo mosaico i confronti stilistici rimandano alle più alte produzioni greche del primo ellenismo, come i mosaici di Pella e Eretria. Se la presenza in una città indigena di un mosaico di così alto livello artistico, che non trova confronto in nessuna delle città greche dell'Italia meridionale, può apparire problematica, va tenuto conto, tuttavia, che Oria svolse un ruolo politico importante nel mondo messapico, come suggerisce la notizia, conservata da Strabone (6, 3, 6) della presenza nella città di un basileion, e cioè di un 'palazzo regale'.