Ancient earthwork foundations and filled ditches are dramatic, but they are not the only kinds of archaeological sites that remote sensing methods can detect; and magnetometry is only one of many remote sensing technologies available for archaeological investigations.
The Ohio Historical Society (OHS) now routinely uses remote sensing surveys at sites prior to any planned construction activities that have the potential for disturbing the traces of past activities hidden beneath the surface that are, after all, part of the reason we preserve and interpret these sites in the first place. Over the past several years, these projects have resulted in important new discoveries many of which have been reported in this blog.
At Fort Laurens, Ohio’s only Revolutionary War era fort, we traced the outlines of the 18th century military occupation using metal detector surveys. We discovered a scattering of metal objects beneath the sod, including a deposit of around 200 musket balls that were intended to have been used by the U.S. soldiers stationed at the fort, but which were lost in an unfortunate accident. This work began as an attempt to discover the location of the 1764 blockhouse built by Henry Bouquet’s fo
rces on or near this site, but it was expanded over the years in response to various proposed construction projects across the property. Jarrod Burks is now engaged in a remote sensing survey of the entire site.At Serpent Mound, prior to the construction of updated toilet facilities, Burks conducted a remote sensing survey of the areas that were going to be affected by the excavations necessary to install the new septic system. Burks located features that we decided to save by re-routing the proposed water lines around them.
At Fort Ancient, Burks used a variety of methods to examine an area that was going to be used as an access route for heavy equipment employed in repairing damaged segments of the earthworks. Burks discovered traces of a previously unknown circular arrangement of large posts, now referred to as the Moorehead Circle. We decided to alter our plans to avoid disturbing this area, but subsequently it has become the focus of a multi-year investigation led by Robert Riordan of Wright State University.
In each case, remote sensing technologies revealed important clues to our past that might otherwise have been lost. In the Serpent Mound example, the results of the survey were used to preserve the remains of the ancient feature. At Fort Laurens and Fort Ancient, the results were used to focus archaeological investigations on specific anomalies, which have revealed important new insights about these remarkable places.
Stay tuned to this blog for announcements of discoveries that are sure to be made by forthcoming remote sensing investigations at some of the most important historic and prehistoric sites in the State of Ohio.
Here is a link to my column in the Dispatch:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2012/01/22/technology-offers-peek-into-past.html
Here is a link to a previous blog post on the discovery of the large collection of musketballs at Fort Laurens:
"Ft Laurens Musketball Concentration: evidence of a fight or fiasco?"
http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2007/03/ft-laurens-musketball-concentration.html
Here is a link to a previous blog post on Serpent Mound project:
"New discoveries at Serpent Mound"
http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-discoveries-at-serpent-mound.html
Here is a link to a previous blog post on Fort Ancient's Moorehead Circle:
"Secrets of the Moorehead Circle"
http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2011/08/secrets-of-moorehead-circle.html
Brad Lepper
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5 comments:
Reminds me of the day in the Summer of '72 at Seip Mound where we ran resistivity measurements at a scheduled but unexcavated portion of the Summer School OHS dig. Don't remember as any anomaly panned out then. But it must work elsewhere else it would not be in the toolbox. Don Corwin
OK, How do we get the equipment we need to use this method? We have a lost earthwork fort site to discover.
Does this have to be deployed from an aircraft ?
Anonymous,
Some remote sensing technologies are deployed from aircraft, but all of the examples featured in the blog are ground-based technologies. You can find equipment easily enough by searching on the web, but almost more important than the equipment is the operator who interprets the data. I suggest you contact Jarrod Burks for recommendations for contractors in your area that do this work.
Hi Don.
A lot of geophysics has now been done in the area where you guys worked at Seip in 1972, and we have published a more detailed account of the OHS work from the 1970s in the Journal Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. I have one picture of that survey in 1972(I think my pictures dates to then). Do you have any others? Thanks! Jarrod Burks
Jarrod: No pictures, and I cleaned house on my field notes 3 moves ago. I remember the face of our school participant who was helping, which might verity your photo from then. my email is buckeyeleafdad@yahoo.com if you care to send it my direction. I just know it was a hot day and you were recording resistance numbers. That's been a long time ago. While serving at Fort Hood Tx, I connected with Fred Briuer who was their CRM coordinator in 78. He reminded me we may have been doing the first Archaelogical recon work with the earliest model of GPS. It was a backpack the size of a squad radio and weighed about 35# including batteries. Carry that around in July and August and you have a really good idea of dedication. As long as the satellite signals were not being jammed, we had about a 5 meter resolution
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