By Robert Colburn, IEEE History Center Research Coordinator

The temples at Paestum, Italy (circa BCE 480) are among the best-preserved temples of the ancient Mediterranean world. Poseidonia (“Poseidonville” later “Paestum”) was a major, and very wealthy, seaport in the Greek part of Italy, approximately sixty kilometres south of modern Naples. The port eventually silted up in Roman times, and Paestum was abandoned, leaving us a magnificent Greco-Roman city. (Only about one tenth of which has been excavated.) Unlike at Pompeii or Herculaneum to the north, one can wander the streets of Paestum free from any sense of tragedy. Although pumice from the Versuvian eruption has been found at Paestum, archeological evidence suggests the damage was limited to the collapse of awnings and a few light structures under the weight.

My visit to Paestum was full of wonders on many levels, one of which is that IEEE-related  technologies are helping to preserve these magnificent treasures.  The temple known usually as the temple of Poseidon/Neptune (but which archeological evidence now shows more likely to have been dedicated to Hera) is protected by an innovative system of high-sensitivity large-band sensors developed at the University of Salerno’s Department of Civil Engineering. Fourteen real-time accelerometers positioned in the temple and on the surrounding ground monitor sub-millimeter scale movements of the stonework, whether caused by earthquake, wind deflection, temperature variation, nearby road and railroad traffic, and even the footsteps of tourists.

Poseidon (“Earthshaker”) would no doubt smile in approval at this.

The informational plaque at the corner of the temple explains, “Since March 2021, the temple of Neptune…has had a seismic monitoring system…developed as part of research into gravitational waves. These sensors have been positioned at the top of the temple and along its foundation in order to measure each single movement of the ancient structure in real time.”

Meanwhile, up the coast at Pompeii, synthetic aperture radar measurements taken from satellites are monitoring the angles of the walls of the buildings, to warn of likelihood of collapse. Unfortunately, the lack of adequate resources for structural stabilization makes this still an all-too-frequent occurrence.

The Gravity Wave Antenna at Pisa, Italy, Livingston, Louisiana, U.S.A. and Richland, Washington, U.S.A., and Synthetic Aperture Radar in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada are IEEE Milestones.