High Resolution Geophysics Inside Machado de Castro Museum – Coimbra, Centre Portugal

Geophysics has been used inside Machado de Castro Museum buildings (Coimbra, Portugal) to guide archeological surveys and to help building restoration. The high resolution geophysical work consisted on GPR and Resistivity survey. Data was gathered on the floor of the so called Renaissance room and on the Cryptoporticus wall, that is, perpendicular to the plane of the Renaissance room floor. Restoration works in old buildings is a sensitive task as they often lay over older buildings. Therefore, high accuracy is demanded to non invasive exploration works. Hence, the geophysical survey was designed in order to obtain very high accuracy. Both the geophysical data/interpretation and the archeological findings were organized in a GIS to provide a full picture of the area under investigation. Archeological excavations confirmed the geophysical findings as well as the accuracy obtained.