Geophysical surveys on Gargano prehistoric flint mines. a first approach

This paper shows the first results of some geophysical surveys carried out on the Neolithic and Copper Age flint mines of the Gargano. Particularly, the surveys have been carried out on three mining complexes (Arciprete, Principe, Defensola A-discarica B). Different techniques of investigation have been tested to estimate their potentiality with reference to the specific geo-morphological context of the Gargano mines. Specifically, Ground Penetrating Radar, Earth Resistivity Tomography and Frequency Domain Electromagnetic surveys have been carried out. The research aims to define a method of investigation to be able to understand large mining areas using fast and non-destructive analysis. In this first phase it has been possible to verb the validity and the applicability field of each geophysical technique. On an archaeological plan, the most remarkable result is the discovery that other sub-horizontal mines (Arciprete and Principe) are almost as large as Defensola A