Archaeological Prospection最新文献

The multidisciplinary study of Gunung Padang has revealed compelling evidence of a complex and sophisticated megalithic site. Correlations between rock stratifications observed through surface exposures, trenching and core logs, combined with GPR facies, ERT layers, and seismic tomograms, demonstrate the presence of multi-layer constructions spanning approximately 20–30 m. Notably, a high-resistive anomaly in electric resistivity tomography aligns with a low-velocity anomaly detected in seismic tomography, indicating the existence of hidden cavities or chambers within the site. Additionally, drilling operations revealed significant water loss, further supporting the presence of underground spaces. Radiocarbon dating of organic soils from the structures uncovered multiple construction stages dating back thousands of years BCE, with the initial phase dating to the Palaeolithic era. These findings offer valuable insights into the construction history of Gunung Padang, shedding light on the engineering capabilities of ancient civilizations during the Palaeolithic era.

This article combining geophysics and archaeology aims to provide a more comprehensive characterization of the La Ruchelle valley located in the south of the Celtic site of La Peyrouse (Saint-Félix-de-Villadeix, Dordogne, France) (occupied between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD) through geological prospection (core sampling, geotechnical prospection and mechanical prospection) and near-surface geophysics (electrical resistivity tomography). On this site, other studies have been carried out since the discovery of the site, such as magnetic prospecting and a hydrogeological study. Geophysical data coupled with geological prospection were used to understand the geology of the valley: (1) The bottom of the valley is filled with colluvium with a thickness of 6 m maximum; (2) part of the colluvium filling characterize by a very low resistivity is indeed archaeological remains; (3) three very distinct geological horizons have been detected—two of these horizons are characteristic of Campanian limestone (C6d and C6e), and the last consists of colluvium with a filling between 2 and 6 m in the centre of the valley, which is particularly thick. This last very thick formation is in fact filled with archaeological and prehistoric remains.

Egypt is a distinctive country in terms of its rich and unique tangible cultural heritage including monuments and archaeological sites distributed across the country. Many monuments and archaeological sites are facing a variety of climate change-associated hazards with a wide range of cross-sectoral impacts. This research intends to identify climate change-associated hazards on tangible cultural heritage in Egypt, highlighting the main areas of concern. For this purpose, a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based methodology is utilized, beginning with defining a framework for hazard identification. This is followed by developing a geospatial database of tangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, expected changes in relevant climate parameters under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario up to 2065 were profiled. Thereafter, a geospatial database of existing tangible cultural heritage in Egypt as well as current and future climate parameters are employed to examine the exposure of archaeological heritage in Egypt to various climate change-associated hazards up to the year 2065. It was found that the tangible cultural heritage sites in Egypt, accounting for 205 sites, are exposed to specific or combined levels of climate change-associated hazards depending on their geographic settings. In this respect, it was found that 25% of archaeological sites in Egypt are susceptible to combined high to moderate temperature ranges and humid conditions as a result of climate change up to 2065. This highlights the need for developing archaeological site conservation strategies based not only on current conservation needs, including anthropogenic and environmental stressors, but also on climate change-associated hazards. Such a strategy needs to prioritize different cultural heritage assets actions according to their uniqueness as well as associated direct and indirect benefits.

Lidar datasets have been crucial for documenting the scale and nature of human ecosystem engineering and land use. Automated analysis methods, which have been rising in popularity and efficiency, allow for systematic evaluations of vast landscapes. Here, we use a Mask R-CNN deep learning model to evaluate terracing—artificially flattened areas surrounded by steeper slopes—on islands in American Sāmoa. Mask R-CNN is notable for its ability to simultaneously perform detection and segmentation tasks related to object recognition, thereby providing robust datasets of both geographic locations of terracing features and their spatial morphometry. Using training datasets from across American Sāmoa, we train this model to recognize terracing features and then apply it to the island of Tutuila to undertake an island-wide survey for terrace locations, distributions and morphologies. We demonstrate that this model is effective (F1 = 0.718), but limitations are also documented that relate to the quality of the lidar data and the size of terracing features. Our data show that the islands of American Sāmoa display shared patterns of terracing, but the nature of these patterns are distinct on Tutuila compared with the Manu'a island group. These patterns speak to the different interior configurations of the islands. This study demonstrates how deep learning provides a better understanding of landscape construction and behavioural patterning on Tutuila and has the capacity to expand our understanding of these processes on other islands beyond our case study.

Geoarchaeological prospection techniques were applied to identify activity zones and the inner structure of a homestead at the Early Mediaeval site Pohansko near Břeclav (Czechia). By a combination of geophysical methods, the spatial distribution of microartefacts, geochemical analysis and multivariate statistical analysis, we outlined various manifestations of anthropogenic activity. We examined obtained data by Spearman's correlation coefficient, spatial autocorrelation (Global Moran's I) and robust Principal component analysis to identify the spatial pattern of the area. Recognized joint presence of heavy metals (Pb, Zn and Cu) and elements related mostly to organic matter, waste and ashes (S, P and Ca) as well as a small number of slag fragments probably indicate presence of metalworking zones or mixed zones with domestic and industrial debris at the homestead. Further anthropogenic activities could be connected to manuring, animal management or some kind of production activities based on the presence of Mn, P and Cu. Bone and charcoal concentrations supplement the information of geochemical analysis and may indicate the manner of waste management in the peripheral parts of the homestead. In the middle of the homestead, the location of archaeological features indicates an open space in which no specific activity was detected. By means of magnetic susceptibility and judging from the presence of daub, we defined the potential presence of non-sunken features, which were not recognized by magnetometry. The outcome of the study is yet to be verified by excavation.

An extensive magnetic survey has been carried out on a large part of the Roman and late antique city of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain), combined with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electric resistivity imaging (ER Imaging) to obtain data for a better understanding of the ancient city.

For magnetic measurements, the 7-probe fluxgate gradiometer array was used. The GPR data were collected by means of a system equipped with two dual-frequency antenna boxes of 200 and 600 MHz, respectively.

The geophysical data provide some new insights into the layout of the city, with the identification of numerous structures in areas that are still unexplored by archaeological investigation. The results fill the gap of previous partial geophysical surveys and show an interesting, unseen image of ancient Pollentia.

Contrasts in electromagnetic properties between the target feature and surrounding soil are of importance for detection of archaeological features with Ground Penetrating Radar. These vary because of changing climatic conditions and soil type and are currently poorly understood. Long-term in situ monitoring of apparent relative dielectric permittivity, bulk electrical conductivity and soil temperature over two archaeological ditch features on sites with different soil types (one clay and one free draining) was employed to understand the detection dynamics and processes by which these properties change over time. Results were correlated with geotechnical properties of the soil for both archaeological ditchfills and the surrounding natural soil matrix and previously derived laboratory relationships between water content, temperature and geophysical properties to find the timing and reasons for the optimum geophysical contrasts. Monitoring included two distinct, relatively stable periods: one wet and one dry. In contrast to previous perception that there are significant differences in infiltration between the ditch and surrounding natural soil, time-lagged correlation analysis showed no significant differences in infiltration speed. The key differences between archaeological and natural soils were the amount of water held in a saturated state, the rates at which the different soils dried and the temperature. Thus, the optimum time for surveys was after a sustained period of several days of hot (>15°C) weather, which accentuates both water content and temperature contrasts. However, on freely draining sites that had a greater difference in the soil texture and therefore water holding capacity between the archaeological and natural soils, the timing is less critical.