The regular application of geophysical and topographical survey techniques to evaluate archaeological sites has been the most recent addition to landscape surveys in Italy carried out by The British School at Rome. As a research institution, The British School at Rome has a long tradition of promoting archaeological survey in the study of ancient landscapes.

Thomas Ashby, as Director of the School at the beginning of the last century, set the precedent by embarking upon his study of the Roman Campagna which drew upon topography and extant ancient structures to further our understanding of the expansion of Roman hegemony over time.

During the 1950’s, John Ward-Perkins conceived The South Etruria Survey, a pioneering research framework that allied broad landscape survey and excavation to documentary evidence. As early as 1960, Ward Perkins commissioned a geophysical survey, applying resistivity to detect and record buried archaeological remains at the town of Veii. The overall results of The South Etruria Survey were synthesised by Tim Potter to chronicle the changing face of the historical landscape.

Both the methodology and conclusions of the South Etruria Survey have formed the basis of many subsequent British and Italian archaeological projects in the area to the north of Rome. In particular, the recently completed Tiber Valley Project, directed by Dr Helen Patterson, brought together a wealth of collaborators to re-examine the landscape on a much broader scale and initiate new fieldwork using a variety of survey methods. Geophysical and topographical surveys undertaken since 1997, in addition to the recording of standing buildings, were integral elements.

The successful application of these survey techniques at various archaeological sites in the Tiber Valley gave rise in 2001 to a collaborative initiative between The British School at Rome and the Archaeological Prospection Services of Southampton, a unit within Southampton University. The creation of a focussed team at the BSR dedicated to geophysical and topographical surveys has enabled their skills and expertise to be deployed on research projects associated with the British School at Rome as well as on a range of projects of Italian and foreign institutions within Italy. The wide distribution of BSR geophysical work over much of Italy is testimony to the diversity of the commissioning bodies; a number of Soprintendenze, Italian and foreign Universities, Province, Regiones and local Comune. More recently, the British School at Rome has begun to extend the geographical spread of its surveys to the western Mediterranean in general, with ongoing work commissioned by partners in Spain, Malta and Montenegro.