Going for archaeological prospections

A tremendous work is done to understand how life was in the past, how our ancestors settled and moved on. But still, we only discovered a few percentage of our history and much more heritage is out there to get unveiled.

But often, it’s uncertain where to start, where to dig or how get permission to prospect. Methods for non-destructive surveying are required to research on foreign land, agricultural sites or places that permit a disruption of the ground. Luckily, light weight top surface survey systems are available, towed by an ATV with a rack loaded of magnetometers to have a seamless recording; highest data density to make sure no information is left uncovered in the field.

While EOD experts are interested in solid objects signatures, archaeologists are on the outlook for thin lines and faint structures. Combined with a RTK GPS the gathered measurement data can form a highly accurate footprint of an entire area to provide a link between single information. That makes it possible to understand the bigger picture of past settlement and to focus on the right spot, narrow down excavation work and make historical research economical to its environmental impact.

SENSYS pay in to that challenge with its multi sensor systems based gradiometer or triaxial magnetometers like the FGM650 ARCH or FGM3D. While the FGM650 ARCH have a reduced measurement range for improved resolutions, the FGM3Ds allows the analysis also of horizontal magnetic components making archaeology a true science.

The sensors are put into push cart or vehicle towed systems – like the MXPDA or the MX – that are easy deploy in the field, light weight and intuitive to handle. With a vast number of available GPS solutions, SENSYS systems can hook them up and feeds GPS information directly into the data stream. This way every measurement value is married to a coordinate that is as precise as +/- one centimetre.

Another benefit of multi sensor solutions is the redundancy of information, whereas SENSYS processing software is also comparing and leveraging to deliver a color coded areal map with a superior information level. That way dry river beds, lightning strikes, forging places, ancient roads, fortified barriers and ditches, settlement, graves and houses get visible – even without a single sign if standing in the field right on top of it. While this is all about land, it continues into the water and into the sky to reach places we never thought of before.