New temple discovery at the archaeological site of Nysa (western Turkey) using GPR method

We carried out a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) study at specific sites around the Nysa city (western Turkey) to assess the potential of detection method and imaging of buried archaeological features. As a major educational and cultural Aegean city during the Hellenistic and Roman times, Nysa has been the focus of archaeological investigations for the last 100 yrs. Past and ongoing excavations have revealed major ancient buildings such as theatres, amphitheatres, a library and shops. However, it is suspected that the original city may have extended further and reached a larger size.We collected 22 profiles using a GPR system equipped with two shielded antennas of 250 and 500 MHz central frequencies. After processing steps, GPR results revealed the existence of buried walls located at ∼50 m west of the library. They systematically display a characteristic signature (hyperbolic shaped point source reflections) in GPR profiles and may be described in terms of location, geometry, and dimension, to a certain extent, of construction style. Excavations made after our study, confirmed our results and unearthed a previously unknown temple. Hence, shallow geophysical investigations helped in gathering crucial archaeological information to better characterize the extent and richness of the city of Nysa.