Non-Invasive Documentation of Burial Mounds and Historic Earthworks from the Dakota Heartland: A Combined Approach Utilizing LiDAR and Shallow Subsurface Geophysical Methods.

Summary

Recent collaboration between archaeologists, geophysicists, tribes, and preservationists has improved documentation and preservation of precontact and historic earthworks using non-invasive methods.  The availability of LiDAR data has revolutionized preservation efforts in the historic Dakota homeland by allowing us to identify and document cemeteries over large areas.  At the site-specific scale, aerial LiDAR imaging is utilized in conjunction with subsurface geophysical imaging of earthworks to improve documentation of internal features. The results allow better interpretation, management, and protection of sacred and historic resources.  Methods of visualizing surface topographic features using a suite of LiDAR data processing and analysis tools are discussed.  LiDAR derived surface topography is combined with subsurface data obtained from GPR, magnetic field gradient, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical resistivity surveys.  This combined approach results in digital models depicting both the topographic expression of burial mounds and the visualization of buried archaeological features that have no surface expression.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Poster Session 1

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 241