Mapping Adriatic Landscapes project: geophysics and other prospecting methods in the discovery and re-discovery of pre-Roman settlements in northern Marche

The paper discusses the most recent results achieved by the University of Bologna in the northern Marche region, across the valleys of the Rivers Cesano, Nevola and Misa, within a young project of landscape archaeology mainly focused on the systematic employment of non-invasive techniques of investigation and mapping for understanding the ancient settlement’s dynamics and evaluating the buried archaeological asset. Started in 2012, the Mapping Adriatic Landscapes Project has led to the better comprehension of the main Roman towns in the territory and to the discovery of several sites, enriching the current state of knowledge on the Iron Age's settlements in this sector of the region, which has so far been characterized by significant information gaps. Within this framework geophysics is playing a key role, fostering the discovery of new very promising sites referable to the Piceni’s culture, as well as a better understanding and in-depth analysis of proto-urban settlements already noted in the literature, but still largely unknown from an archaeological point of view. The recent experiences of integrated non-destructive prospecting methods carried out at the hilltop site of Miralbello, in the middle Cesano River Valley, at Civitalba, in the high Misa River Valley, and in the newly detected Piceni necropolis along the Nevola torrent, prove the effectiveness of the adopted method, contributing positively to the issue by filling in some of the existing gaps and demonstrating that the considered landscape is far less empty than previously thought.