8/6/2019 The DART Project: A major new investigation into what lies beneath our soils (Council for Independent Archaeology

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The DART Project: A major new investigation into

what lies beneath our soilsAnthony Beck*, Rob Fry**

*School of Computing, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT,

a.r.beck@leeds.ac.uk

**Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences,

University of Bradford, BD7 1DP, R.J.Fry@Bradford.ac.uk

Geophysical and Aerial survey have substantially increased our

understanding of the nature and distribution of archaeology remains.

However, there is variable understanding of the physical, chemical,

biological and environmental factors which produce the archaeological

contrasts that are detected by the sensor technologies. These factors vary

geographically, seasonally and throughout the day, meaning that the

ability to detect features changes over time and space. This is not yet well

understood.

Detection of Archaeological Residues using remote sensing Techniques

(DART: www.dartproject.info) is a three year, 815,000 Science and

Heritage funded initiative led by the School of Computing at the University

of Leeds. The Science and Heritage programme

(www.heritagescience.ac.uk) is funded jointly by the Arts and Humanities

Research Council (AHRC: www.ahrc.ac.uk) and the Engineering andPhysical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC: www.epsrc.ac.uk). To

examine the complex problem of heritage detection DART has attracted a

consortium consisting of 25 key heritage and industry organisation,

academic consultants, and researchers from the areas of computer vision,

geophysics, remote sensing, knowledge engineering, and soil engineering.

In October 2010, 3 PhD students were appointed by the scheme at the

universities of Leeds, Bradford, and Birmingham, with an additional

associated PhD at Birmingham funded by EPSRC. They will be focusing on

overlapping research areas in feature detection associated with spectral

imaging, geophysics, Time Domain Reflectance (TDR) data analysis, soilengineering and archaeological interpretation.

Detection techniques rely on the ability of a sensor to measure the

contrast between an archaeological residue and its immediate

surroundings or matrix. Detection is influenced by many factors changes

in precipitation, temperature, crop stress/type, soil type and structure, and

land management techniques. DART will increase the foundational

knowledge about the remote sensing of sub-surface archaeological

remains.

The programme of research has been designed specifically to identifyphysical, chemical and biological contrast factors that may allow the

8/6/2019 The DART Project: A major new investigation into what lies beneath our soils (Council for Independent Archaeology

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detection of archaeological residues (both directly and by proxy) using

sensing devices. To determine contrast factors samples and

measurements will be taken on and around different sub-surface

archaeological features at different times of the day and year to ensure

that a representative range of conditions is covered. Field measurements

will include geophysical and hyperspectral surveys, thermal profiling, soil

moisture and spectral reflectance. Laboratory analysis of samples will

include geochemistry and particle size. Models will be developed that

translate these physical values into spectral, magnetic and electrical

measures in order to determine detection parameters. This will allow

DART to address the following research issues:

What are the factors that produce archaeological contrasts?

How do these contrast processes vary over space and time?

What processes cause these variations?

How can we best detect these contrasts (sensors and conditions)?

The key will be to understand the dynamic interaction between soils,

vegetation and archaeological residues and how these affect detection

with sensing devices. This requires understanding how the archaeology

differs from, and dynamically interacts with, the localised soils and

vegetation and how these differences can be detected.

From the data collected physical models of soils/sediments variations

under different environmental conditions will be developed. This will be

mapped onto sensor responses to understand the physical manifestation

of contrast and its dynamics. The aim is to map the physical variations

into measurable spectral, magnetic and electrical variations. This will allow

the development of interpretative and knowledge-based decision tools to,

for example:

Assist curators in determining the condition of buried

archaeological remains and sensor configurations appropriate for

their detection.

Enhance the discovery of archaeological remains from appropriate

archival imagery.

DART is committed to both tailoring for and improving the uptake of the

research within all communities. This requires engagement with as many

of the potential end-user stakeholders as possible. DART has already held

one community workshop and will run one more before completion.

However, the research team is continually looking for opportunities to

engage with different user communities. Do contact the authors if you

would like to collaborate with the project.

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Sites have been selected in both Cambridgeshire (Diddington) and

Cirencester (Royal Agricultural College) for their mixed geologies (having

areas of both clay and other better draining soils) and their

archaeological potential. These were selected through GIS analysis,

historic mapping, and targeted by consultation with the DART consortium

and the county archaeologists to find two geographically different areas of

investigation http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/?p=464. Initial geophysical

(fluxgate gradiometer) surveys were then undertaken to identify

archaeological features. The initial focus is on ditches as they will have the

most impact in the user community. Potential features were cored in order

to characterise the nature of the archaeology and the suitability for the

project and final locations were chosen.

On the site at Cirencester, trenches through the selected features have

already been excavated and vertical profiles of TDR sensors installed in

both the archaeological feature, and the surrounding soils. These sensorswill measure and log soil moisture and temperature variations both within

and outside the archaeological feature. The sensors will be installed in

Diddington during May.

The DART Project is an Open Science initiative. Where practicable all

science objects (data, algorithms, etc.) will be made openly available.

Ongoing development of our methodology is available

http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/?p=174 and in the near future will be

submitted to an open access methodology store for open critique and

development (we have developed this resource in collaboration with the

Open Knowledge Foundation and with the support of the Council for British

Archaeology). This allows for broader dissemination of objects used in the

generation of research knowledge. An open license means that the

outputs can be reused in a broadly unfettered way (be that for research,

teaching, personal edification etc.). This has the potential to dramatically

increase the impact of the research both within and outside the traditional

academic communities.