The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: Internal construction of a monumental burial mound from shear wave reflection sounding and wavefield modelling

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon is one the largest known burial mounds in Eastern Mediterranean. Its internal structure, especially existence and location burials, remains unknown so far because its height 32 m diameter 158 have restricted extensive excavations. To explore interior Tepe, we applied shear wave reflection profiling traveltime tomography, locally complemented by electrical resistivity tomography. Shear imaging enabled us to identify layering localize structures down basal surface mound with a metre-scale resolution. A grid crossing SH-wave profiles 4-m line spacing covered central area. can be subdivided into three stratigraphic layers representing different construction phases, each about 10 thick. deepest consolidated layer compacted surface. verified collapsed tunnel system shaft at 30-m depth that had been dug level beginning 20th century. collapse created damage zone decreased S-wave velocity reaching up overlying middle layer, which four seismic objects interest (SOIs) were detected. these SOIs north–south-oriented 15 long 4 wide. SH-viscoelastic forward modelling showed it likely consists walled cavity loosened soil above. third covers underlying two enriched large stone packages as local We show capabilities shear-wave image small-scale under complicated topographic conditions how characteristics cavities volumes decompacted evaluated wavefield modelling.