Geophysical Indications on Prehistoric Chamber Tombs in Ancient Aigeira?

The ancient polis of Aigeira is located on the northern Peloponnese between the modern settlements of Aigeira and Derveni inland on a hill overlooking the Corinthian Gulf. This strategic position controlling large areas of the Corinthian Gulf as well as inland routes are most likely the driving factors for the long lasting settlement activities. Excavations by the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI; since 1972) revealed that an extended settlement was inhabited with occupational gaps since Middle Neolithic times (6 ^th millennium BCE) until the early 15 ^th century CE. Since 2012 geophysical investigations are part of a cooperation between OeAI and the Institute for Geosciences of Kiel University yield insightful results. However, the geological setting proved challenging for the geophysical survey, so a multi-method approach was required to achieve sufficient results. In the presented case study magnetic mapping shows an anomaly pattern that especially in a location right outside the limits of the Late Bronze Age (LBA, 12 ^th century BCE) settlement could be related to a system of several chamber tombs characteristic for the LBA. Ground-penetrating-radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) show similar patterns. Seismic measurements as well as 5 corings were conducted to obtain additional information. The results of all methods are integrated in a subsurface model subsequently used for seismic modeling and full-waveform-inversion (FWI). The extensive investigation reveals, that the anomaly pattern is not caused by chamber tombs but by a natural geological process.