Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a nondestructive measurement technique, which uses electromagnetic waves to locate targets or interfaces buried within a visually opaque substance or Earth material. GPR is also termed
ground probing
,
surface penetrating
(SPR), or subsurface radar. A GPR transmits a regular sequence of low‐power packets of electromagnetic energy into the material or ground, and receives and detects the weak reflected signal from the buried target. The buried target can be a conductor, a dielectric, or combinations of both. There are now a number of commercially available equipments, and the technique is gradually developing in scope and capability. GPR has also been used successfully to provide forensic information in the course of criminal investigations, detect buried mines, survey roads, detect utilities, measure geophysical strata, and in other applications.
s fault, and Brown is to be congratulated for attempting to put into one text a very wide-ranging and well integrated review of an important subject in field archaeology. Occasionally reach exceeds grasp, and the sources given for some biological topics, in particular, are not always the most recent or the most useful. Perhaps more could also have been said about estuaries: Brown makes some good points about river valleys as ecotones, and this topic could have been further developed with reference to the floodplain±maritime boundary, perhaps as exemplified by the Swifterbant± Hazendonk settlements in Holland. However, a limit has to be drawn somewhere, and the fact that one wants to see this book extended in its scope is a sign of Brown's success in making his subject matter archaeologically important, and in avoiding the methodological reductionism to which such a text could easily have fallen victim. Alluvial Geoarchaeology should find its way on to the shelves of anyone involved in field archaeology on or close to river systems, and that means most of us.
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