A geophysical investigation of the Late Roman underground settlement at Aydintepe, Northeast Turkey

Abstract

The Aydintepe underground settlement in northeastern Turkey is a series of subsurface galleries carved in Eocene-aged volcanic tuff. Rescue excavations conducted by the Local Archaeological Museum of Erzurum in 1996 and 1997 uncovered a large settlement with several underground rooms linked by passages. According to the excavators, it may have been built as a hideout and shelter by the first Christians who were banished by the Romans during the 3rd century A.D. Despite its historical and touristic value, parts of the underground settlement at Aydintepe have been destroyed to make room for the construction of new buildings in the modern town. As part of a conservation strategy for this important archaeological resource, a series of ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity measurements were conducted along eight profiles between 2003 and 2005. GPR soundings with a 100-MHz unshielded antenna yielded reflected hyperbolic signals with high amplitude from tunnel structures. These highamplitude signals corresponded to areas of high electrical resistivity. These anomalies allow us to determine the probable locations of tunnels within the underground settlement and they provide important data that can be used to prevent future damage from modern construction.

Rome and the Tzani in late antiquity: a historical and archaeological review

“…The fortification wall has been the object of only limited study; the most 142 comprehensive description remains that of Thomas Sinclair (1989: 252-56). A large number of inscriptions included in the walls suggests that the most imposing remains were mainly the result of restorations carried out by order of Mughīth al-Dīn in AD 1213 and 1214 (Redford 2014, with further bibliography). The existence of this fortification wall has to be sought in the roles of the city as a trading station, along the route from the Black Sea to inner Anatolia and western Iran, and a military base (on the history of Bayburt, see Winfield 1962: 162-66, with extensive bibliography; Shukurov 2013: 715).…”

Traveltime tomography of crosshole radar data without ray tracing

“…It is applied to a wide range of shallow geophysical investigation tasks. This includes sedimentology and hydrogeology (Fisher et al, 1992;van Overmeeren, 1998;Neal, 2004); environmental and engineering studies (Knight, 2001;Annan, 2004;Porsani et al, 2004); shallow aquifer investigations (Cardimona et al, 1998); cavity detection (Zhou and Sato, 2004); soil moisture measurements and porosity estimations (Greaves et al, 1996;Huisman et al, 2003;Hanafy and al Hagrey, 2006;Turesson, 2006;Strobbia and Cassiani, 2007); archaeological prospections (Neubauer et al, 2002;Conyers, 2006;Şeren et al, 2008); and glaciology and permafrost studies (Arcone et al, 1998;Hinkel et al, 2001;Eisen et al, 2003).…”