REPRESENTATION OF SEPINO ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE USING AIRBORNE REMOTE SENSING

The research activity carried out on the archaeological area of Sepino, in Molise, is proposed as an innovative scientific approach of technological survey that does not alter the morphology of the site. Looking beyond the visible represents a new paradigm of knowledge useful in particularly sensitive and complex fields of research such as the Sepino area. Bringing to light the traces of the ancient Roman city of Saepinum, built in the Tammaro valley in the Italian municipality of the province of Campobasso, is the result produced by a way of doing research, that is alternative to traditional systems and that preserves the values of cultural belonging without erasing the evidence of the past, fully preserving the heritage value of the place under study. An investigative activity that allows to highlight what the traditional scientific approach is unable to discover without modifying the areal structure of the site so as to achieve discovery after excavation. The use of hyperspectral and thermal sensors installed on board an aircraft designed for remote sensing allowed the measurement of reflected radiation from the ground in various wavelengths, while at the same time the camera recorded very high-resolution frames. In the post-processing phase, MSAVI algorithms enhancing the characteristics observed on the vegetation; REDVEG false colour associating infrared wavelengths to the RGB channels and PCA representation sampled according to the processing of specific electromagnetic bands, were used. A further activity of knowledge of the site involved the analysis of the DEM to verify the correspondence of the pixel on the territory. The result produced highlighted numerous total anomalies collected in the GIS environment for georeferencing and archiving of the final data.