A scintillating fibres tracker detector for archaeological applications

We designed, constructed and operated a cylindrical, scintillating fibres, tracker detector in order to measure the directional flux of cosmic ray muons underground. This instrument named Muon Ground Radiograph (MGR) was developed to study the fluctuation of the density in the soil that causes detection anisotropies in the arrival direction of cosmic ray muons observed in a tracker detector located underground. Density fluctuations may reveal hidden cavities or buried structures and can contribute to archaeological findings. The shape of the detector we used, for this purpose, is cylindrical, 14 cm diameter and 224 cm height, and it can be inserted into a 20 cm diameter hole in the ground at a maximum depth of 30 m. This paper will describe the instrument design and construction and also report some results of two observational campaigns in the town of Aquileia the Claudio and Traiano port.