Assessment of Subsurface Neolithic/ Palaeolithic sites in the Southern Gargano Area, Apulia, Italy using a 3D geo-electric resistivity approach

Caves are important sediment traps both for sediment formed inside and for sediments transported from outside into the caves. The stratigraphic reconstruction of the cave’s deposits combined with the study of the archaeological and biological contents (remains of plants or animals) provides an excellent record of the climatic changes happened in the cave and offers information about landscape evolution. Since the study area close to Manfredonia, Southern Gargano, Italy is characterized by important archaeological sites (Occhiopinto Cave) we investigated the area north of Manfredonia in order to get an idea of cavities and their spatial distribution in the ground.In a previous work we tested a 2D approach based on 8 transects. In the present study we used a parallel setting of transects in order to perform a 3D model of the underground structures. Therefore three different arrays were tested, Dipol-Dipol; Wenner and Schlumberger. Schlumberger array is said to be superior in distinguishing lateral from vertical variations in resistivity in respect to Wenner. Whereas Dipol-Dipol array is especially useful for measuring lateral resistivity changes. The utilized electrode spacing for the surface transects was 2m. In order to calibrate and validate the analys is we made 2 core drillings yielding information on the stratigraphy and cavities in the underground. With the given value ranges and the respective electric resistivity arrays we were able to identify the location and depth of the major cavities in 3D fora ca. 25 ha test plot area