La sinergia tra aerofotografia archeologica, prospezioni geofisiche e indagini stratigrafiche per lo studio della città medievale abbandonata di Montecorvino

This paper concerns a reconstruction of the medieval town of Mon- tecorvino (Volturino, Fg) in the M. Dauni area (northern Apulia). Montecorvino is a Byzantine foundation in the 11th century CE along the border with the Lombards and was abandoned around the 15th century CE. The results of excavation (2006-2022, carried out by University of Foggia and University of Bari) have been integrated with data from proximal sensing (magnetic survey) and remote sensing (aerial photos by UAS, DTM lidar analysis). The first part illustrates the type of research carried out so far in the site and summarizes the historical and archaeological results of the explorations. The second concerns the cropmarks taken from the aer- ial photos; these mainly show some sections of the wall circuit, the external moat and the urban plot in the eastern sector of the city. The third paragraph shows the remarkable results of the magnetic survey. The entire city plan has been returned; the urban fabric is made up of blocks perpendicular to the main road; in the SE sector a different plot is likely related to terraced levels. Likely enlargements of the city wall are visible, even if a verification by excavations is required to clar- ify these dynamics and their chronology. Finally, the proximal and remote sensing data are compared with the results of recent excava- tions, that generally validate interpretations of detected anomalies.