Geophysical Surveys for Archaeological Research in Urban Areas: The Case of the Roman Theatre in Padua

The Roman theatre of Padua stood in the area now occupied by Prato della Valle, a huge elliptical-shaped square with central green part (Isola Memmia) surrounded canal, built second half 18th century and modern urban city center Padua. Some still-preserved remains stand at bottom this canal. Recently, 2017, emptying cleaning canal excavating these remains, which had been known past, new geometrical archaeological information has collected. To date, however, there are no specific indications about additional preserved buried parts its overall extent between outer Valle. Therefore, several electrical resistivity tomographies (ERT) ground penetrating radar (GPR) sections were collected 2017 to gather information. results geophysical prospecting recent evidence historical documents, even complexity environment, provide further details on possible location theatre, opening considerations issues related use ERT GPR contexts.