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By: kjfitz
Buried Roman City Altinum
The foundations of the city have recently been rediscovered near Marco Polo Airport, seven miles north of Venice. They have been examined with a combination of visible and near-infrared photos of the area taken during a drought in 2007, when cropmarks in maize and soybean fields revealed the presence of brickwork and foundations beneath the plow zone. The traditional Roman grid plan, here with a canal that cut through the city, and the recognizable outlines of theaters and other public structures enabled Andrea Ninfo and colleagues from Padua University to make a detailed reconstruction of the city's topography and the network of canals and sluices that drained the marshy environment.
