Pietro Cosentino

“Piazza Armerina” is an archaeological site of great import in Sicily. Last century numerous excavations were carried out there, one of the most important findings of which was the now well known “Villa del Casale”, of Roman age. The excavations started in 1929; they were resumed in ...

The archaeological museum of Rome asked our group about the physical consistency of a marble slab (second to third century AD) that recently fell during its travel as part of an exhibition. We decided to use different methodologies to investigate the slab: namely a pacometer (Protovale Elcometer) to individuate the internal coupling pins, and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) (2000 MHz) and ultrasonic (55 kHz) tomographic high-density surveys to investigate the internal extension of all the visible fractures and to search for the hidden ones. For the ultrasonic data, tests were carried out to optimize the inversion parameters, in particular the cell dimensions. Surely, the choice of cell size for the inversion process must take into account the size of the acquisition grid and the ray number acquired. We proposed to calculate a minimum Fresnel's radius using the sampling frequency instead of that of the probes. For every methodology used, the quality of the acquired data was relatively high. This was then processed and compared to provide information that was useful for some of the insurance problems of the museum. Later on, the data was processed in depth to see how to improve the data processing and interpretation. Finally, the results of this in-depth study were exposed in detail. Ultrasonic and GPR tomographies show a strong correlation, and in particular, the inhomogeneous areas are located in correspondence to the slab injuries.

The archaeological Museum of Rome (Museo delle Terme di Diocleziano) asked our group about the physical consistency of a marble slab (II - III century AD) that has recently fallen down during the transportation for an exhibition. In fact, due to insurance conflict, it was necessary to control the new fractures due to the recent accident and distinguish them from the ancient ones. The sculptured slab (today's size is 1280 x 70 x 9 cm), cut at the ends for a re-use as an inscription in the rear face, was restored (assemblage of different broken parts and cleaning) in contemporary times. We used different methodologies to investigate the slab: namely a pacometer (Protovale Elcometer) to individuate internal coupling pins, GPR (2000 MHz) and Ultrasonic (55 kHz) tomographic high-density surveys to investigate the internal extension of all the visible fractures and to search for the unknown internal ones. For every methodology used the quality of the acquired data was relatively high. They have been processed and compared to give a set of information useful for the bureaucratic problems of the Museum. Later on, the data have been processed in depth, for studying how to improve the data processing and for extracting all the information contained in the whole set of experimental data. Finally, the results of such a study in depth are exposed in detail.

By the late 2008 one of the most important pieces of the "Museo delle Antichità Egizie" in Turin, the sculpture of the Pharaoh with god Amun, was planned to be one of the masterpieces of a travelling exhibition in Japan. The "Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino", managing the museum, was concerned with the integrity of the basement of the statue which actually presents visible signs of restorations dating back to the early IXX century. The questions put by the museum managers were to estimate the internal extension of some visible fractures, to search for unknown internal ones and to provide information about the overall mechanical strength of the basement. In order to tackle the first and second questions a GPR reflection survey of the basement along three sides was performed and the results were assembled in a 3D rendering. As far as the third question is concerned, two parallel, horizontal ultrasonic 2D tomographies across the basement were made with a source-receiver layout able to acquire, for each section, 723 ultrasonic signals correspondent to different transmitter and receiver positions. The ultrasonic tomographic data were inverted using different software based upon different algorithms. The obtained velocity images were then compared with the GPR results and with the visible joints on the basement. A critical analysis of the comparisons is finally presented.

In this paper, the response of different synthetic models to geoelectrical multi-electrode surveys is studied. The models considered are related to two main problems, which are very common in geophysical research regarding hydrogeology and engineering. The first class of models represents buried walls, similar archaeological remains or remains of buried foundations; the other class corresponds to a sea-water intrusion of a fresh water aquifer, which is generally studied in hydrogeophysics. A set of 2D simulations, starting from the synthetic models, was carried out to compare the behaviour of the different arrays when acquiring measurements of electrical resistivity tomography. For each model, the apparent resistivity data—and relative pseudo-sections—were calculated for common electrode arrays (Wenner, dipole-dipole, Wenner-Schlumberger). Furthermore, a 'non-classical' configuration (i.e. the linear grid) was also tested. The synthetic data, after adding different levels of Gaussian noise, were inverted using RES2DINV software; then the interpretative models were compared with the initial synthetic models using different parameters to estimate the quality of the matching. Finally, the comparison between the results obtained using the various arrays is presented. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the various arrays is evaluated for each problem, also taking into account some other characteristics of the arrays, including the associated practical advantages in time consumption and noise level. Results on synthetic data were also confirmed by two field tests: one at an archaeological site survey and one at a coastal aquifer study.

A large number of unconventional investigations have been implemented, tested, and validated in the field of microgeophysics, with the aim being to solve specific diagnostic and/or monitoring problems regarding civil engineering and cultural heritage studies. The investigations were carried out using different tomographic 2D and 3D approaches as well as different energy sources, namely sonic, ultrasonic and electromagnetic (radar) waves, electric potential fields, and infrared thermography. Many efforts have been made to modify instruments and procedures in order to improve the resolution of the surveys as well as to greatly reduce the time of the measurements without any loss of information. The main new methodologies here discussed are the sonic imprint, the global tomographic traveltime, the electrical resistivity tomography, and the control of external films (patinas) grown on stone monuments. The results seem to be very promising and suggest that it is the moment to dedicate time and effort to this new branch of geophysics, so that these methodologies can be used even more to diagnose, monitor, and safeguard not only engineering buildings and large structures but also ancient monuments and cultural artifacts, like pottery, statues, etc..