The Current State and Future Possibilities of Ground-Penetrating Radar in Cultural Resource Management

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is an established prospection method in cultural resource management (CRM), yet despite its contributions its use is not universal. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate the utility of GPR surveys before and during CRM excavations, and to underscore the need for maximizing the archaeological capabilities of GPR. This talk is organized into two parts. The first presents case studies of typical GPR surveys from CRM contexts, with the goal of exhibiting the various target types encountered with relatively low frequency (350-900MHz) antennas. A major part of this discussion will be the common pitfalls associated with different sites and types of data, and methods for overcoming these issues. Also discussed are best practices for GPR fieldwork and post-processing techniques for archaeological datasets. The latter half will highlight the authors’ experimental GPR techniques that employ high-frequency (1600-2700MHz) antennas inside excavation units. Case studies from pre-contact sites in New England and investigation of a historical burial at the Jamestown Colony will reveal the archaeological importance of higher frequency antennas. These high-frequency data are forwarded as a means of ‘digital bisection’, whereby GPR surveys during excavation provide a new level of real-time mission planning for archaeological efforts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25684