METAL DETECTING SURVEYS ON HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS AND BEYOND: A SIMPLE METHODOLOGY (original) (raw)

Advice for archaeological survey with recent technologies

ACTA IMEKO, 2018

Despite the technologies are now part of the archaeological discipline, they must not divert attention from archaeological issues and should be aimed at solving different historical and methodological questions, such the phases of a monument or innovative representation methods. The paper focuses the attention mainly on the use of range-data and image-based systems applied to the archaeological heritage, in order to highlight differences between the techniques and the related errors. Some considerations are necessary in order to find possible solutions for improving the quality and the accuracy of a survey project, considering the recent and innovative techniques adopted in archaeology. At the same time the authors provided, where possible, some solutions and suggestions for reducing the errors and checking the general quality of the work. Different experimentations have been made on some case studies that show how to manage technologies trying to reduce as much as possible the erro...

"Using mobile GIS. for Field Digital Data Acquisition (FDA) in archaeological field survey"

A. Krek, O. Bender, A. Vassilopoulos, N. Evelpidou (eds.), Geoinformation technologies for geocultural landscape analysis: European perspectives (London 2008) 35-46

This chapter discusses an implementation of a low-cost solution in archaeological research concerning the on-site data input of geographical information in a GIS by means of a handheld computer equipped with GPS, i.e. using mobile GIS and FDA (Field Digital Data Acquisition) methodology. The main advantage of this methodology is to avoid the degradation of the information from the moment of its acquisition on-site to the time of its processing and input in a GIS. Using FDA methodology is possible to capture data directly on-site using a handheld computer equipped with GPS, GIS and database software, and digital cartography. Another advantage of FDA is the economy of time, without having to waste it collecting data in conventional format on-site, to have to postprocess all this data in a computer with the risk of loosing vital information. FDA methodology guarantees the correct location, delimitation and documentation of settlements or landmarks, making the work on-site and realtime.

Archaeological Survey Supported by Mobile GIS

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2022

In recent years, digital technologies applied to archaeology have led to considerable changes in fieldwork. However, the use of mobile GIS for fieldwork has not been widespread, especially in countries where GIS is not yet entrenched within the field of archaeology. Over the last decade, the technological context associated with mobile GIS has changed. In this text, these changes are discussed based on a case study developed in Catamarca (Argentina), in which the possibilities of a more generalized use of mobile GIS-based on free, open, and available resources (software, data, devices)-are discussed. This article assesses the main problems faced and describes the basic steps taken to implement a field recording system based on mobile GIS.

An Integrated Approach to Archaeological Survey Design, Methodology and Data Management

Fennema, K & Kamermans, H. 2004 Making the connection to the past CAA 99: Computer applications and quantitative methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 27th conference, Dublin, April 1999. Leiden University., 2004

A 'Common Archaeological Grid System' is proposed as a survey design template for large-scale multidisciplinaiy projects. This system includes a number of novel procedures to streamline the collection, processing and management of survey data. The procedure requires that all archaeological surveys be aligned to Ordnance Survey National Grid to ensure the exact correlation of all datasets and enable data-values to be more easily assigned positional coordinates. Data in this 'xyz' format is compatible with most graphical applications and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The strength of the common archaeological grid system lies in its data management potential, enabling individual filenames to contain both descriptive and location information. This in turn can facilitate the archiving of survey data and enable the integration of survey data from diverse, unrelated projects in a GIS environment. The common archaeological grid system, therefore, has potential implications for the establishment of a 'National Archaeological Data Archive'.

In one hand: RS, GIS, and GPS integration made easy for archaeological surveys.

‘Beyond the city walls. The landscapes of Aquileia’ (BCW) is a landscape archaeology project based in NE Italy seeking to investigate the peripheral landscapes of the Roman city of Aquileia out of its city walls, to identify the extent of the periphery, to define its nature, and to understand the relationship between urban core and its fringes. Aquileia was one of the largest and wealthiest ancient Roman cities, located in a key area for commercial exchanges between the Danubian regions and the Mediterranean basin. The site represents an exception in the North Mediterranean panorama, in that it is a unique case of a landscape scarcely touched by the massive 20th century urbanisation characteristic of Europe. Archaeological prospection can be carried out from the immediate edge of the urban perimeter into a large surrounding area. It is, hence, exceptional in retaining a relatively intact Roman peripheral landscape around a city of that size in antiquity. The BCW project is building up and applying a methodology for defining peripheral spaces, urban/non-urban interface, models of settlement development and landscape transformation by employing traditional archaeological research integrated with a combination of aerial and multi/hyper-spectral Remote Sensing (RS), geophysical techniques, 3D laser scanning, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These tools have amply proved their value to archaeological research as practical methods of detecting, recording and analysing visible and masked remains of ancient settlement across the landscape. However these tools are often applied piecemeal. The paper will convey an overview about how different datasets (aerial, Lidar, multi-spectral and hyper-spectral Remote Sensing data, historical and modern cartography, geophysics data) are being integrated to locate, map and interpret archaeological features and how a large array of RS data can overcome the specific shortcomings of each of these types of imagery. The project is also trialling new approaches to digital field data collection using handheld Android consumer tablets with a view to directly upload field-walking data (descriptive forms, GPS data, field photographs) into an integrated geo-database and visualise RS data on site, thus simplifying the field-walking procedures and streamlining data collection, eliminating the need of post-fieldwork data download and transcription.

Relax, Don’t Do It: A Future for Archaeological Monitoring

Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 2016

People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.

Sites, Cameras, Location: Towards a Quantitative Methodology of Recording Archaeological Fieldwork

This is a self-published report that has three main sections. The first section discusses changes in the practise of planning/survey and recording archaeological features in UK based professional archaeological field excavation. In particular, changes in methods and techniques since the 2008 GFC (global financial crisis). The second section investigates a technique for precision geotagged image recording using a pole-mounted camera/dgps system. The third section investigates the potential for creating a modular, microcomputer (raspberry pi), camera/sensor/gps system.

Mobile GIS in Archaeology: Current Possibilities, Future Needs. Position Paper

Digital Archaeologies, Material Worlds (Past and Present). Proceedings of the 45rd Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, edited by Jeffrey B. Glover, Jessica Moss, and Dominique Rissolo, 99–113. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press, 2020

Ever since field survey has become an important method in researching ancient communities we can observe improvement of its technological and theoretical aspects. Nowadays, rapid urban sprawl and intensified agriculture lead to the increasing destruction of sites and archaeological landscapes throughout the globe. Thus, an adequate low budget strategies is needed, that will able help to document, preserve, study and manage all what is left. The introduction of GIS and GNSS mobile applications opened a such possibility. At the 2017 CAA meetings in Atlanta, the authors organized a session entitled "Mobile GIS in archaeology current possibilities, future needs", at which the current issues and possibilities were discussed. The session resulted in this summary paper. The main aim of the paper is to re-evaluate the contemporary concept of the survey that was introduced due to a rapid increase of GPS accuracy and development of mobile technology.