Geophysical technique suitability chart

[David Hunter - Hunter Geophysics]

Hi everyone,

 

Those in attendance at AAA in 2010 may have seen my chart (a distinct blue-coloured A4 bit of paper) which lists various geophysical techniques and their suitability to finding specific archaeological features and different types of graves (e.g. coffin burials vs. buried cremation urns, etc.). The list is fairly extensive, but if you think of something that isn't listed, feel free to ask me.

 

If you haven't seen the chart, it is now available online at www.huntergeophysics.com, accessible via the 'Papers' link as a PDF.

 

It is, though, important to think of geophysics not only as a prospection tool, but also as a means of gaining more data about a site. 'Ghost features' are often detected geophysically but aren't seen upon excavation due to various soil processes. This means that part of the story may not be learned about a site, despite complete excavation.

 

There are numerous examples of this, mainly from overseas surveys; I intend to write something on the matter in my email newsletter early this year. In the interim, an example is the use of magnetic susceptibility to detect stratigraphic changes within ditch fill that were not visible upon excavation. This is described in Martin and Anne Roseveare's poster, 'Intra-site Magnetic Susceptibility - Survey of a Herefordshire Enigma' for the Environmental and Industrial Geophysics Group 2006 conference (the abstract of which is also available in the 'Papers' area of the Hunter Geophysics website).

 

 

Enjoy the weekend.

Dave

 

 

	David Hunter
	Director   |  Hunter Geophysics – Archaeological and shallow sub-surface geophysicists
	Mob.: (+61) 0488 501 261
	www.huntergeophysics.com  -  david....@huntergeophysics.com
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