DIGGING UP THE PASTFINDING A SITE

Where to Dig?

“…most important sites are not found by archaeologists at all…instead they are found accidentally by farmers, quarrymen, construction workers, or aerial photographers; underwater sites are discovered by fishermen and divers; caves have been found by potholers, children and even dogs.”

Paul Bahn

Human activities that involve digging into the ground and removal of soil have led to many chance finds. Such activities include ploughing, construction, particularly airfields in World War 2, means include quarrying and dredging

Some sites have also been found as a result of drop in sea levels and soil erosion

Other means include the use of ancient literature, maps, legends and folklore.

The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered by accident by two boys

The Mungo Man was discovered on February 26, 1974 when shifting sand dunes exposed his remains. He was found near Lake Mungo, one of several dry lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region.

Terracotta Army discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well

Schliemann and the Iliad

La Tene CultureIn 1857, prolonged drought lowered the waters of the lake by

about 2 m. On the northernmost tip of the lake, between the river Zihl and a point south of the village of Marin-Epagnier, Hansli

Kopp, looking for antiquities for Colonel Frédéric Schwab, discovered several rows of wooden piles that still reached about 50 cm into the water. From among these, Kopp collected about

forty iron swords.

Pipeline Diggers Find Mass Grave in Ukraine 2007

KIEV, Ukraine — Ditch-diggers discovered a mass grave believed to contain thousands of Jews slaughtered in Ukraine during World War II, a Jewish community spokesman said, a grim finding in a nation one Holocaust expert said had been “an enormous killing field.”

The grave was found by chance last month when workers were laying gas pipelines in the village of Gvozdavka-1, about 175 kilometers (110 miles) northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odessa, regional Jewish community spokesman Roman Shvartsman said Tuesday

Since World War 2 modern technology has increased the opportunities for archaeology exponentially.

As well the role of science has reduced the destructive aspect of excavation to a minimum

Ground Surveys The simplest survey technique is surface survey. It involves

combing an area, usually on foot but sometimes with the use of mechanized transport, to search for features or artifacts visible on the surface. Surface survey cannot detect sites or features that are completely buried under earth, or overgrown with vegetation. Surface survey may also include mini-excavation techniques such as augers, corers, and shovel test pits.

Soil resistivity mapping Soil resistivity mapping A soil

resistivity meter evaluates how well the soil conducts electricity by measuring its moisture content. Heavily compacted soil, such as a buried road or the floor of a building, holds less moisture and is less conductive, while ground that has been tampered with, such as trenches or ditches, have high moisture content and readily conduct electricity. In either case, archeologists use soil resistivity mapping to pinpoint disturbed areas beneath the surface.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Ranging in size from small handheld

models that one places against the ground to larger ones that one drags across a site, GPR devices use low-power radio waves to detect changes in density underground.

Unlike traditional radar, which broadcasts into the air and uses a parabolic dish to focus the returned waves, GPR uses a small but sensitive receiver placed directly against the ground.

Depending on their needs, archeologists can adjust radio frequencies upward for shallow sites or downward for deeper areas, though GPR devices produce the greatest definition when reading depths of three feet or less

Magnetometer  Magnetometer The handheld magnetometer, also referred to as

a gradiometer, proton magnetometer, or simply "mag," is loosely related to metal detectors used to sweep beaches in search of lost coins and jewelry. As one moves it over the ground, the mag generates a small electronic signal that measures the intensity of the magnetic field below the surface. Where there is a break in the bedrock—at the entrance of a rock-cut tomb, for example—the magnetometer records a dip in the magnetic field. Archeologists often use mags in conjunction with Global Positioning System receivers (which use satellites to compute precise positions) to create detailed maps of the subsurface.

Aerial Surveys Aerial survey is conducted using cameras attached to airplanes,

balloons, or even kites. A bird's-eye view is useful for quick mapping of large or complex sites. Aerial photographs are used to document the status of the archaeological dig. Aerial imaging can also detect many things not visible from the surface plant growing above a buried man made structure, such as a stone wall, will develop more slowly, while those above other types of features (such as middens) may develop more rapidly. Photographs of ripening grain, which changes colour rapidly at maturation, have revealed buried structures with great precision. Aerial photographs taken at different times of day will help show the outlines of structures by changes in shadows. Aerial survey also employs infrared, ground-penetrating radar wavelengths, and thermography.

The importance of Crop Marks for Archaeology

Some crops (e.g. wheat and oats) are particularly sensitive to soil water content and show marks clearly but others (e.g. grass and potatoes) are insensitive and rarely show them. Additionally, well-drained soils (such as sands and chalky soils) show these marks

better than poorly drained clays.

A Legacy of War

World War One brought the discovery that photographs behind enemy lines taken from airplanes could be of great value in warfare. Not longer after this, observers taking random photographs from the air over rural England noticed that traces of old Roman walls, forts and roads could be seen on aerial photographs but otherwise went unnoticed under cornfields and pastures when archaeologists wandered about the countryside on foot.

Stonehenge 1908 from a balloon Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have

unearthed a huge settlement at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge, confirming that the Stonehenge monument was part of a larger ritual centre.

The excavations reveal an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge, the legendary monument on Salisbury Plain.

Radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 BC, the houses are from the same period Stonehenge was built — one of the facts that leads the archaeologists to conclude that the people who lived in the Durrington Walls houses were responsible for constructing Stonehenge. The houses form the largest Neolithic or new stone age village ever found in Britain.

“Today aerial survey is the single most important tool for the discovery of archaeological sites in this country,” said Pete Horne, Head of Aerial Survey and Investigation at English Heritage

NEW ARCHAEOLOGY

In recent years, remote-sensing technologies have become as commonplace in archeological fieldwork as khakis, spades, and brushes. Such tools for virtual excavation generate rapid results and are non-destructive, highly accurate, and usually cost-effective.

“Today aerial survey is the single most important tool for the discovery of archaeological sites in this country,” said Pete Horne, Head of Aerial Survey and Investigation at English Heritage

Post World War 2Aerial Photography

The simplest of the remote-sensing techniques that archeologists use, aerial photography allows experts to discern aspects of a site that may be invisible from the ground, such as floral patterns, the layout of large monuments, and traces of old walls and roads. The technique involves taking photographs with conventional camera and film from an airplane, tethered blimp, helicopter, hot-air balloon, or other airborne vehicle.

Aerial photograph of Chew Green hillfort, Northumberland England

Yarnbury Wiltshire, photographed in 1996. The ramparts and ditches are emphasized by light and shade and the reflective qualities of a thin layer of snow enhance the visibility

This a Gallo-Roman villa rustica, that was discovered by aerial survey in 1979

Archival Aerial photography; What can you see?

An excellent source of remote sensing information for archaeologists is archival aerial photography, the older the better. U.S. Army Air Corps aerial recconnaissance photos of the region dating from September 1944 were acquired from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency using a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA).

. Over 200 black and white vertical aerial photos of a scale of approximately 1:40,000 were acquired and have been manually and digitally analyzed to search for archaeological sites, roads, etc.

Imaging radar Using radar across a broad

spectrum of frequencies, imaging radar can see through the ground to depths of up to ten feet, penetrating sand, dirt, and even heavy vegetation; a buried section of China's Great Wall was discovered this way. Space shuttles or satellites outfitted with this equipment can generate imaging radar maps by day or night and even in poor weather conditions.

Infrared aerial photography Buried structures can disturb vegetation above them

by blocking plants' growth or their access to groundwater. While the archeologist's naked eye cannot perceive these subtle abnormalities, infrared film can. By recording the heat signature that plants give off, and by detecting places where that signature has been interfered with, infrared photographs can hint at promising areas for excavation. Experts take such photographs from the air with a conventional camera using infrared film

The Lost City of Ubar In 1992, radar images from space revealed

ancient caravan routes that lead to the discovery of the lost city of Ubar in the southern Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula in the sultanate of Oman.  Ubar was built by the legendary Ad society that dates from 3000 BCE to the 1st century in the Common Era.  This ancient city is referred to in the Bible, the Qua'ran, and the Tales of the Arabian Nights.  Ubar was the global center for frankincense trade before the rise of Christianity, which popularized burials rather than cremations.  It is known as the "Atlantis of the Sands."  Until recently most scholars thought Ubar was a merely a myth

On the left is the image used to discover the caravan routes. It was captured by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR-C / X-SAR). The radar penetrated 600 feet of sand to detect the faint red streaks which are the old caravan routes

Paleodrainage in Eastern SaharaA 50 km wide swath from the Spaceborne Imaging Radar A (SIR-A) revealed ancient water courses underneath 1-4 m of sand in the eastern Sahara. Above the radar swath is superimposed over a LANDSAT image of the same area.

In search of the Real Troy

UNDER WATER ARCHAEOLOGY Regional survey in underwater archaeology uses

geophysical or remote sensing devices such as marine magnetometer, side-scan sonar, or sub-bottom sonar.

The Actium Project     In the summers of 1993 and 1994,

a team of American and Greek researchers scanned the ocean depths where, 20 centuries before, Mark Antony and Cleopatra fought Octavian for control of the Mediterranean world. Using computer, video and remote-sensing technology, Project members hoped to locate on the sea floor actual physical evidence from the battle. Our expectations were based on various threads of evidence that suggest 60 or more bronze warship rams plummeted to the bottom during the course of the battle on September 2, 31 B.C.

Airborne Oceanographic Lidar (ADI):

A laser device that makes "profiles" of the earth's surface. The laser beam pulses to the ground 400 times per second, striking the surface every three and a half inches, and bounces back to its source. In most cases, the beam bounces off the top of the vegetation cover and off the ground surface; the difference between the two give information on forest height, or even the height of grass in pastures. As the lidar passes over an eroded footpath that still affects the topography, the pathway's indentation is recorded by the laser beam. The lidar data can be processed to reveal tree height as well as elevation, slope, aspect, and slope length of ground features. Lidar can also be used to penetrate water to measure the morphology of coastal water, detect oil forms, fluorescent dye traces, water clarity, and organic pigments including chlorophyll. In this case, part of the pulse is reflected off the water surface, while the rest travels to the water bottom and is reflected. The time elapsed between the received impulses allows for a determination of water depth and subsurface topography

Sidescan Sonar used to discover the wreck of the Tudor Ship ,The Mary Rose in 1967. The ship was brought to the surface in 1982

Sidescan Sonar

Wreck of the Mary Rose raised to the surface on October 11 1982

Team uses sub, robot to recover ancient shipwreck ruins

1997

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Using a nuclear submarine, a robot and a high-tech mapping system, a U.S. Navy-led team has discovered an unprecedented treasure trove of shipwrecks in the deep waters of the Mediterranean

Internet maps reveal Roman villa 2007

Google Earth offers satellite images of many parts of the worldLatest technology proved an unexpected aid to unearthing the past when an Italian man decided to look at internet maps of his home.

Computer programmer Luca Mori found the remains of an ancient Roman villa when he browsed Google Earth maps showing satellite images of his local area.

His curiosity was sparked by unusual shading by his home in Sorbolo, Parma.

He contacted local archaeologists who investigated and confirmed it was once the location of a Roman villa.

"At first I thought it was a stain on the photograph," 47-year-old Mr Mori explained. "But when I zoomed in, I saw that there was something under the earth."

The satellite images threw up a dark oval shape more than 500m (1,640ft) long, as well as shaded rectangular shapes nearby

Putting it all together for Australian soldiers August 2007 ELIZABETH JACKSON: An expert panel in Canberra was recently given a report into the

discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of 160 Australian soldiers killed in World War I.

The Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 in northern France was one of the bloodiest battles of the Great War.

In a day of fierce fighting, over 5,500 Australians were killed - they were wounded or taken prisoner.

Now archaeologists at the University of Glasgow have found several mass graves containing the remains of 399 Commonwealth soldiers, including 160 from the Australian 5th Division.

TONY POLLARD: We used a background of quite in-depth historical research, which included a quite substantial archive of allied wartime aerial photographs taken between 1916, just days after the Battle of Fromelles, going right the way up to 1918, and these show the eight pits that the Germans were ordered to dig by their commanders, the C, to actually accommodate the bodies from the Battle of Fromelles, both British and Australian.

There's no trace of them obviously in the field today. There are one or two slight depressions, so what we wanted to do was to use everything we had in our power to survey the ground without actually digging trenches and with the possibility of disturbing the bodies.

So we did topographic survey, we measured the lumps and bumps, we did ground-penetrating radar, we did resistivity survey, which allows us, using a variety of techniques, to measure anomalies under the ground, and we did a metal detector survey. And all of those techniques, when measured together, have given us quite a valuable insight into this area of ground and the deposits within it