Combining past, present, and future. Non-invasive mapping for the urban archaeology of Ascoli Piceno (Italy)

The article discusses the experience of the Asculum Project, initiated in 2012 as a collaboration between the University of Bologna, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle Marche and the Municipality of Ascoli Piceno, mainly as a project of urban and preventive archaeology in a long-lived city. Within this collaborative framework, the project benefits a wide range of interests, helping to reconcile conservation and research needs with sustainable urban development. The integration of new and old data from a variety of sources (geophysical and topographical surveys, archaeological excavations, geological and geomorphological analyses) is the basis of the research, towards the reconstruction of the ancient urban landscape and its transformations over the centuries. Key studies have focused on the city's main squares and open areas, with their historical monuments that allow us to see beneath the paved surfaces and provide new insights into the evolution of buildings and the development of crucial sectors of the Roman and medieval urban landscape. In addition to research, the project also promotes support for modern spatial planning and knowledge outside the academic world, focusing on the city and its social and cultural development, with activities to involve and raise public awareness. Significant aspects in terms of innovation, method and dissemination include the following. INNOVATION: The research carried out in the historical centre of Ascoli Piceno has led to new interpretations and therefore significant discoveries that make it possible to reinterpret the evolution of the urban landscape starting from the recognition of new buildings of the Roman city (pp. 12-15). METHOD: The study makes use of innovative integrated methodologies for the study of a complex and stratified urban context. The continuity of occupation of the historic centre posed specific difficulties that led to the adoption of multidisciplinary investigation methodologies, capable of bringing geophysics into dialogue with archival data (pp. 9-10). DIFFUSION: The study is included in an English gold open access series with international circulation, facilitated by the participation of numerous leading experts in the discipline and the result of a European project (ERC).