Survey Methods & Sites

Settlement sites

Quarries and workers’ settlements

‘Tell’ sites – occupation mounds (visible
and invisible)

Monuments

Causewayed enclosures (ditch and bank)
Hillforts
Stone circles

Encampments / temporary activity
areas

Hearths, pits, postholes, scatters of
artefacts

Cemeteries and mortuary complexes

Sometimes with surface indications

Aerial photography

Archival aerial photography –
reconnaissance aerial
photography used since WWI
(1914-1918)
Used in archaeology from the
1920s
Images can be geo-rectified

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Kite Aerial Photography

Satellite imagery

(Free) Google Earth, Corona, NASA WorldWind

Finding unknown and known sites
Locating sites in (currently) inaccessible areas and monitoring them for damage/destruction
Also locating sites across vast expanses, e.g. deserts
Regional surveys
Possibilities of gathering data in no-fly zones
Older images can pre-date much urbanism

SRTM – Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission

Good for elevation data

SRTM images show up the old river
positions as levees
Highlight potential occupation
mounds ‘koms’, or ‘tells’
Inform about the relationship
between ancient sites and their
natural environment

LiDAR – Light Detection and Ranging (long range scanner)

Time of flight scanners
Can record earthworks
Standing structures
Can detect features that you cannot see on the landscape

Penetrate the forest canopy
Some of the lasers are reflected
back, but some reach the forest
floor
It creates a 3-D surface of the
landscape

Maps

Created for different purposes, at different times

Contour data – elevations, or depressions
Ancient village names / suggestions of ancient sites
Importance of using old maps alongside modern data
Crucial to examine maps before going into the field

Ground survey

pedestrian survey; field-walking

Variable depth of cover
Timed surveys of areas, greater or lesser spacing between team members
Regularly spaced spot sampling

Magnetic Survey

Detects magnetic objects

Can pick up irrelevant things

Electrical Resistance Tomography

Creates a vertical ‘slice’
Detect areas of different resistance beneath the ground
Needs to be ground-truthed

Geophysical survey

• Magnetometry
• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
• Resistance Tomography
• Resistivity