Geophysical investigations at the Bronze Age site of Békés 103 in Eastern Hungary

Summary

In archaeological research both non-invasive and weakly invasive methods are often employed without, or prior to, excavation. Surface collection, geophysical survey and shovel testing are the methods that have been employed at the site of Békés 103. Despite the difficulty imposed by the soil conditions and the nature of the targets themselves (cremation graves), geophysical measurements employing a variety of techniques (gradiometry, soil resistivity and electromagnetics) were applied in tandem with surface collection methods to detect potential targets for guiding subsequent excavations. This report merges geophysical data collected in 2015 with the data from the 2011 and 2013 field seasons, comparing the geophysical survey anomalies with the corresponding excavation data. We build a signature archive for cemetery features based on these methods, and through correspondences we isolate potential targets for future excavation. Finally, we tentatively conclude which geophysical prospection methods are optimum for the detection of human burials in this region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Studying the Past with Fragments from the Fire: Student Research on an NSF-REU Field School

Keywords

Spatial Coverage