Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics: An Introduction

By the term ‘archaeological diagnostics’, we mean a whole array of methodologies and approaches to the survey of archaeological sites, mainly referring to those that do not imply excavations or at least only very limited ones. ‘Non-destructive’ or ‘non-invasive’ approaches to the investigation of ancient landscapes have always been available toarchaeologists, since the first methodological definitions of the discipline were drafted (e.g. Bradford 1957; Clarke 1977, 1990; Pasquinucci and Trément 2000; Renfrew and Bahn 2000). Among the most traditional methods, the collection of historical documentation and the field survey are undoubtedly the best developed, but aerial archaeology also provided a boost as soon as photography and flying machines came into use. The use of ancient sources, archive research and toponymy for the investigation of cultural landscapes is so rooted that it has not been possible here to devote specific chapters to these branches of archaeological research. Therefore, we have decided to limit the already wide spectrum of this volume to the newest technological developments achieved in remote sensing and geophysical surveying and to the most recent methodological innovations that have been introduced to the broad approach of the archaeological survey of greenfield sites. A very important section of this volume deals with aspects related to the visualisation of survey data and their valorisation.