Archaeological Impact Assessment: The BREBEMI Project (Italy)

The work presented in this contribution forms part of the BREBEMI project, in reaction to a major motorway construction development linking the towns of Brescia, Bergamo and Milan in northern Italy for a total length of about 120 km. For the first time in Italy a set of non-invasive procedures is being used systematically in order to reduce archaeological risk in advance of motorway construction. This innovative project relies on the methodical collection of information from historical and geographical documentary sources, along with geomorphological analysis, the examination of existing vertical air photography, the collection of new data through targeted aerial survey and oblique air photography, the acquisition of LiDAR data along the whole of the motorway route (160 kmq at a resolution of 4 dots per sqm) and the systematic collection for very substantial areas of geophysical data, both magnetic (AMP) and geoelectrical (ARP) – a total, so far, of 438 hectares of AMP and ARP data (mesh 0,5x0.5 m and 0.5x0.08 m). Test excavations are planned systematically to verify anomalies and the Superintendency for the Region of Lombardy is also initiating random trenching for a total of 5% of the surveyed area. A GIS platform for the project has been designed to manage and integrate all of the data at every stage of development (from data acquisition in the field to interpretation and field checking) as well as to demonstrate overall patterns and to create predictive models. The objectives of the project are to reduce as far possible uncertainty about the presence of archaeological remains along the route and in particular to identify areas which should be protected from destruction because of the presence of either upstanding or buried archaeological remains. As a result of our project be believe that the greatest improvement in rescue and preventive archaeology will surely come not from technological development alone but from a more consistent application of the kind of ‘total archaeology’ and ‘global’ historical approach. Only then will it be possible to reduce the archaeological risk and maximize the archaeological returns from preventive and rescue archaeology.