The buildings and layout of an entire Roman city have been revealed by scientists using ground-penetrating radar.
Archaeologists hooked a quad bike up to a series of sophisticated machines which use radio-waves to take a detailed look at what is hidden deep underground.
This enabled them to map out the city of Falerii Novi, located near Rome, and identify a baths complex, a market and a temple without doing any digging.
Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Ghent also discovered a unique public monument unlike anything else found from ancient Rome, they say.
Other finds include a vast theatre; the housing of the working class in two insulae; and the city's sprawling network of water pipes dating back to the 3rd century.
Falerii Novi is a well-studied Roman site, located around 30 miles (50km) north of Rome.
The town was born out of conflict between the Romans and the Faliscan people who inhabited the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome eventually defeated the natives in 241BC and seized their weapons, slaves and most of their territory.
The original town of Falerii was then destroyed and the Romans would go on to a millennium of domination in the area.
In contrast, the Faliscans and their language would be extinct within a century.
After Falerii was destroyed, a new city was built by the enterprising Romans just three miles (5km) away. This would become known as Falerii Novi.
Falerii Novi, the replacement city, was abandoned around 700AD as the empire fell into decline.
The original city however, was developed and survives today in a different guise, as Civita Castellana.
Due to being unexplored and relatively untainted since the medieval period, Falerri Novi presents a perfect opportunity to researchers hoping to study the layout of Roman metropolises.
In the latest study, researchers wanted to map its hidden features using ground-penetrating radar (GPR).
It works in a similar way to a plane's radar or a bat's echolacation as radio-waves are beamed into the earth and sensitive equipment listens for an 'echo' to bounce back.
The time it takes for it to reflect, and how intensely it is recorded, reveals how far away an object is, its likely shape and what it may be made of.
It has previously been used on smaller projects, but recent improvements to the method mean it can now be used to investigate large swathes of land, including the 35 hectares of Falerii Novi.
'The level of detail provided by this work has shown how this type of survey has the potential to revolutionise archaeological studies of urban sites,' said Professor Martin Millett, from the University of Cambridge, one of the researchers.
'There is little doubt that this technology will fundamentally change the ways in which Roman urbanisation can be understood,' the researchers concluded.
The results revealed several additional buildings not previously identified in earlier research, including a bath complex, market, and temples.
They also discovered what appears to be some sort of public monument, unlike any previously found at a Roman settlement.
Writing in the study, the researchers describe the unique monument.
They say: 'Immediately to the east of the north gate is an enclosure defined on three sides by a substantial porticus duplex (covered passageway with central row of columns) approximately 90 × 40m [300 x 130ft] in size, opening onto the street.
'A pair of structures, each with a central niche, face each other within the interior of the complex. While we know of no direct parallel to this structure, this was evidently a public monument.'
The imaging technique is high resolution, with a reading taken every five inches (12.5cm), and this allows for a detailed look at the town.
It was therefore possible to see individual columns, walls and pipes making up the city's plumbing.
A macellum (market building) was identified, as was a large amphitheatre and shops, roads and baths.
The researchers had to focus specifically on only a small region because the technique was so effective that it produced a huge amount of data.
It takes scientists around 20 working hours to manually sift through the data and document a single hectare.
They say it will therefore be some time before the whole town is analysed in detail.
In the current study, published today in the journal Antiquity, the team opted to focus on a built-up region of the town which they say was where many of the working class residents lived.
Two insulae, which would have originally been separated by a wall running from east to west, were found.
These large buildings would have been home to many people in the urban area, similar to a housing estate or a block of flats in today's world.
They have been called insula L and insula XLI and the researchers say they were 'bounded to the west by a north–south street that is visible in the ground-penetrating radar data'.
They say the region of insula XLI was split into housing in the east and communal spaces in the west.
There are 'two or three atrium houses' in the east which opened up on to the street, the study authors write.
In the west, the area featured a heated plunge bath and a large U-shaped area for exercise, it is believed.
Insula L is located directly to the south of XLI and 'is a very large rectangular building defined along the street to the west by a passageway with columns on either side'.
Two other passageways are visible, and of the three corridors only two were adorned with columns, likely to be both structural and decorative.
The archaeologists add: 'The building lies just within the town wall, towards the foot of a slope, and is connected to a series of water pipes that run beneath other buildings.
'These pipes connect with the town’s aqueduct and can be traced across much of the town, running beneath the insulae, and not just along streets, as might have been expected.'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
