The traditional identification of the ancient port of Ilici with the current town of Santa Pola in Alicante (Spain) has been based on a small number of punctual, unconnected, and too partial archaeological interventions. Since 2017, a program of geophysical surveys has been performed with a Stream X model multi-channel georadar IDS. This program has been focused mainly on the so-called Mercado de Viguetes, an area in which archaeological excavations have hardly been carried out. The geophysical surveys have allowed us to draw part of the urban fabric of the central core of the Portus Ilicitanus, revealing a set of structures that can be assimilated into a port area: warehouses, houses, open spaces, and decantation basins to produce salted fish, and the probable eastern boundary of the complex identified with the port dock. Altogether, two predominant alignments can be assimilated into the Early Imperial and Late Imperial construction phases. Non-invasive archaeological methodologies have become the main resource for archaeological analysis and heritage protection in view of the current impossibility of carrying out archaeological excavations in this area of Santa Pola.

In the framework of archaeological surveys conducted in 2002-3 for the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria around the Via Flaminia, the Società Cooperativa Kronos discovered the site known as the “Villa of Rufio” (the name comes from an inscription dedicated to Caius Iulius Rufio). After 4 excavation campaigns (2003-6) the monumental character of a large villa was established, and in 2007 a team from the University of Alicante led by the first-named author began fieldwork, focusing on the analysis of agricultural and commercial production patterns through an examination of the type of manpower in use during the Augustan era. The site lies in the village of Giano dell'Umbria (Perugia), in the foothills of Gualdo Cataneo-Montefalco of southern Umbria (fig. 1). To the north is the Roman town of Mevania (Bevagna), to the south the Martani mountains, at the foot of which lies Mansio Ad Martis (Massa Martana).

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Esta investigación tiene como objetivo principal reflexionar sobre la efectividad de las aplicaciones de arqueología virtual en públicos escolares para la comprensión y el aprendizaje del patrimonio arqueológico con el fin de aprehender de qué manera las tecnologías, como la Realidad Aumentada y la Realidad Virtual, pueden aportar un valor añadido a las propuestas educativas realizadas por museos y sitios arqueológicos que no cuentan con esta inclusión. El análisis exploratorio del caso se realiza en el Museo del Mar de Santa Pola (España) que ha desarrollado este tipo de aplicaciones en el yacimiento arqueológico romano que gestiona, el Portus Ilicitanus.