Modern Archeologists have a range of different non-intrusive archeological survey techniques available to them when locating and interpreting a site for excavation. These techniques prove useful in locating sites before any excavation is needed and can also assist during the excavation process. They help bring many mediums of data together to make a clear report of the archeological site and any finds that lead from that. The techniques include but are not limited to, looking at historic maps, aerial photography, LiDAR, analytical survey, field walking and geophysics and Geographical Information System (GIS). All of these techniques are useful to an archeologist however, they all have varying degrees of expense, financially, in manpower and
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There are two main types of aerial photography and they give different views of the area under survey. These are Oblique and Vertical photography. Oblique is from an angle looking down and from the side giving the photograph the ability to see undulation and regressions in the ground. Whereas vertical photography which takes a long series of photographs in a row from above, often loses any sense of change in the ground and often features are unseen. For example, at Silbury Hill the height of the hill is lost in the vertical photographs but is clear on the oblique photographs, this shows that when aerial photography is used, both forms of photography should be utilized. Aerial photography is a technique that has to be meticulously planned because there are many variables such as the time of day, weather and light. These affect whether you will be able to pinpoint the features you are looking for or not (Balme and Paterson, 2006). These variables are not such concerns, with developments such as LiDAR which has mostly removed these problems and transformed aerial imaging (Drewett, …show more content…
There are two main types of method used in this form of survey these are resistivity survey and a magnetic survey. The resistivity method uses electric current which are fed underground. The resistance to these currents is read creating a picture of what materials make up the ground bellow. Seeing if there are any hidden features such as walls which would produce high resistance or ditches which would produce a low resistance (Gaffney and Gater, 2003, 26). This then allows archaeologists to analyze the results and decide which areas a likely to hold finds, allowing them to plan the excavation. The magnetic survey uses magnets to find the small magnetic fields connected with buried archaeological remains, it looks for their distortion and effect on the earth’s magnetic field (Gaffney and Gater, 2003, 36). This approach means archaeologists can find different features and finds similarly to the resistivity survey, looking for topographies such as walls, ditches and pits. The geophysical survey, however, is different to the other forms of a survey it provides a very detailed picture of what archaeologists are looking for under the ground. Aerial photography and LiDAR are good for locating the general area, whereas geophysics is used to find exact areas to excavate on, which makes it stand out from the other
There are two main types of aerial photography and they give different views of the area under survey. These are Oblique and Vertical photography. Oblique is from an angle looking down and from the side giving the photograph the ability to see undulation and regressions in the ground. Whereas vertical photography which takes a long series of photographs in a row from above, often loses any sense of change in the ground and often features are unseen. For example, at Silbury Hill the height of the hill is lost in the vertical photographs but is clear on the oblique photographs, this shows that when aerial photography is used, both forms of photography should be utilized. Aerial photography is a technique that has to be meticulously planned because there are many variables such as the time of day, weather and light. These affect whether you will be able to pinpoint the features you are looking for or not (Balme and Paterson, 2006). These variables are not such concerns, with developments such as LiDAR which has mostly removed these problems and transformed aerial imaging (Drewett, …show more content…
There are two main types of method used in this form of survey these are resistivity survey and a magnetic survey. The resistivity method uses electric current which are fed underground. The resistance to these currents is read creating a picture of what materials make up the ground bellow. Seeing if there are any hidden features such as walls which would produce high resistance or ditches which would produce a low resistance (Gaffney and Gater, 2003, 26). This then allows archaeologists to analyze the results and decide which areas a likely to hold finds, allowing them to plan the excavation. The magnetic survey uses magnets to find the small magnetic fields connected with buried archaeological remains, it looks for their distortion and effect on the earth’s magnetic field (Gaffney and Gater, 2003, 36). This approach means archaeologists can find different features and finds similarly to the resistivity survey, looking for topographies such as walls, ditches and pits. The geophysical survey, however, is different to the other forms of a survey it provides a very detailed picture of what archaeologists are looking for under the ground. Aerial photography and LiDAR are good for locating the general area, whereas geophysics is used to find exact areas to excavate on, which makes it stand out from the other