Further investigation into the ‘spots area’ in the eastern half of study area using one by one meter test units is warranted.  For our own curiosity, a trench across a section of the burrow area would hopefully reveal the cause of the anomalous responses. Continuation of the geophysical survey (both grad and res) on all sides of the present survey area.

 

The most difficult part of interpreting archaeo-geophysical survey data is differentiating ‘noise’ from features.  Even after the dataset has been processed to remove periodic defects it can still be riddled with noise. Noise can be caused by naturally occurring materials in the soil, it can also be operator induced.  Each twist of the wrist that causes the gradiometer to fall out of alignment with magnetic north and plumb to the ground is a potential ‘noise’ spike or dip.  Since we can be sure that our wrists were twisting one way or another at every step, it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty that what we have found is not just a bunch of noise.  Certainly more experience will increase our level of  confidence and ability to recognize whether a pattern is more likely to be geologic or archaeologic. Further research and investigations to better understand the geology and instrument response might include:

 

Magnetic susceptibility testing on soils at regular intervals

Moisture content testing on soils at regular intervals

Conclusions and Recommendations

To contact us:

Dr Linda Barrett (Geography) ~ barrett@uakron.edu

Dr Timothy Matney (CSAA) ~ matney@uakron.edu

Dr Lisa Park (Geology) ~ lepark@uakron.edu

 

Study Area, Hopewell?: | The Geology of the Site | The Archaeology We are Looking For | Data Collection: Magnetometry | Data Collection: Resistivity | Data Processing: Magnetometry | Data Processing:Resistivity | Data Collection: Soil Sampling | Conclusions and Recommendations | Archaeo-Geo Links

Further research/investigation for Archaeology’s sake

 

Conclusions:

 

The ‘spots’ we suspect to be small pits or large post molds.  Fire pits are a possibility based on size but they lack the dipole type signal one would expect from materials burned in-situ.

The location of the ‘large positive’ anomaly there are a few animal burrows.  We expected the gradiometer to register a response to the burrows, either positive or negative, the depending on the overall magnetic properties of the soil.  We also expected an area of high resistance in that location.  The response we got was just the opposite and not very well defined.  Clearly, either we expected the wrong outcome or there is other material there causing a different response.