THE ARCHAEOLOGY COURSEBOOK

CHAPTER 1

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE

Methods Desktop study Surface survey Geophysical / geochemical survey Aerial survey Remote sensing

Chance!

BUT…

Not everything is lost from view!

Sites that were never lost

Pyramids at Giza

(But NOT the Sphinx!)

Stonehenge

Sites found by chance Lascaux Altamira Otzi the Iceman Pete Marsh Xian

Historical Documents

Legal documents Economic records Tax records Pictorial records Written accounts Archaeological records & reports Oral accounts Maps

Legal Documents Records of ownership Anglo-Saxon charters Court orders Wills Inventories

Charter from King Eadwig granting forty hides at Ely to Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, 957 AD.

(Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Economic Records Orders & sales lists Agent’s bills (e.g. estates) Directories of services Plans & Drafts

Original plans for Brunel's railway bridge at Windsor

Tax Records

Linked to ownership Tithe awards Tax surveys

(e.g. Domesday Book)

Instructions for the collection of “Domesday” returns i.e. taxes!

Pictorial Records Paintings Photographs

Turner’s painting of

Stonehenge(1825)

Pictorial Records

Engravings Aerial Photographs

Boise, Idaho (USA), 1888

Durham City, present day

Written Accounts

Descriptions of places

found in:

1. diaries

2. books

e.g. antiquarian work

Image of Stonehenge from William Stukeley’s book

(1740)

Archaeological Records !

Previous excavations & surveyslocated in:

museumslibrariesSMRsNMR

ARCHIVE PHOTOS: JERICHO

SCHEDULED MONUMENT

Oral Accounts From people living in the area Might know what has happened in the

relatively recent past– knowledge of past visits by

anthropologists– knowledge of past techniques and

working areas (e.g. pottery making)– farmers’ knowledge of recently ploughed

areas– knowledge of recent locations of

buildings

Maps

One of the MOST important tools Used to examine and locate sites in the

landscape track changes through time

e.g. boundaries, land units, fields, hedges

Regression using Maps

Can work back from the oldest available map

Cross-reference historical sources and fieldnames / place-names

develop maps for periods prior to mapping (e.g. Medieval period)

Early Mapsfrom 16th Century

onwards

Not always to scale

May include visual aspects e.g. illustrations

Engraved map of Hampshire, incl. vignette of Southampton.

Thomas Moule,1845

Modern Ordnance Survey (OS) Maps

from 19th Century onwards mapped each county at 1 inch to 1 mile give details of individual buildings

developed use of grid system

can use series of maps to see changes in land use over time

Other Useful Maps

High resolution maps- i.e. good scale such as OS 1:25000 series

Geological Maps Street maps Vegetation &

Climate maps Survey maps

Surface Survey

fieldwalking surveying aerial photography

recognise scatters

develop contour maps

(can be densities of pottery / lithics)

Dot density plot for ceramics (each dot

equals 0.1 ceramic sherd per field walking tract),

southern Romania.

Fieldwalking

Surface collection (US term)

Systematic collection of artefacts

Decisions:- collect all pieces?- collect only diagnostic pieces?- width of traverses / size of grids?

Pros & Cons of Fieldwalking Cheap! Quick and relatively easy Only useful on arable land (recently

ploughed) Results are only guidance (things

migrate) Differential collection / recognition by

different fieldwalkers

SURFACE SURVEY

Other Surface Survey Methods

Shovel pit testing (taking regular buckets of soil from test pits and sieving

them) Coring (extract sample of

subsoil Augering snapshot of stratigraphy) Probing

Somewhat destructive & time-consuming!

TEST PITS

Geophysical & Geochemical Methods

Analysis of heavy metals and lipids in topsoil (e.g. phosphates)

Detection of magnetic & electrical anomalies

GEOPHYSICS: FIELD BOUNDARIES

MAQGNETOMETRY AT ALFOLDEAN 2OO5

LONGBARROW: COMPARISON OF RESISTIVITY AND MAGNETOMETRY

RESISTIVITY

RESISTIVITY AT ALFOLDEAN

RESISTIVITY

MAGNETOMETRY AT ALFOLDEAN

Resistivity Survey Pass an electrical charge

through the soil Measure differences in

conductance

More moisture greater conductivity

Buried ditch usually retains water conducts water better than surrounding soil

Long Barrow, Gloucs

shows flanking ditches

Magnetometry

Measures local magnetic distortions

Can be due to: digging of pits

(in-fill will have different magnetic charge than the subsoil)

fires (kilns or hearths reset the magnetic field)

Aerial Survey Aerial

Photography

from light aircraft or balloons

verticals / obliques

cropmarks / shadow sites / soil colours Barrow cemetery

(oblique, cropmarks), Cavendish, Suffolk

AP OBLIQUE OF DMV

CROPMARKS

AP OBLIQUE OF STONEHENGE

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM A KITE

AP FROM A KITE

AP: ONE OF A STEREO PAIR

Remote Sensing

from non-ground

based methods

i.e. from planes and satellites

radar sonar thermal imaging infrared

photographysatellite image of the Heraklean

Peninsula, Ukraine

SATELLITE IMAGES

INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY

GIS LANDSCAPE NET

Underwater Archaeology has its own set of techniques and methods

e.g. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)