Success with Geophysics: Archaeology

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has recently gained a wide acceptance in the archaeological community as a method to quickly and accurately locate buried archaeological features, artifacts, and important cultural and geological strata in the near-surface. The GPR method has now become one of the primary tools for geophysical feature identification primarily because of its three-dimensional abilities, and the ability to work around modern cultural features such as buildings, fences, and metal objects without a great deal of interference. While radar energy depth penetration limits (to at most about five meters in most ground conditions) can limit GPR’s ability to map very deep features, most archaeological features around the world are located within that depth range. Historically the archaeological community has used GPR to identify buried remains for protection and future preservation, or to identify them for selective excavation. Recently, GPR has gone far beyond this historical application and has been used as a tool for collecting “primary data” from archaeological sites, which can be used to test ideas about ancient cultures in much the way standard archaeological data can (Kvamme, 2003; Conyers and Osburn, 2006).