At the hillfort Lossow, integrated geophysical surveys were applied as part of an interdisciplinary research project. The importance of the prehistoric and Slavic site rests on various shafts within the hillfort, which are dated to the Early Iron Age and contain findings of offering processes associated with cult practices. At present more than 60 shafts with a depth of 5 to 7.5 m are known from test trenches and excavations inside the hillfort. In the settlement in front of the hillfort, large-scale magnetic gradiometer surveys and electrical resistivity mapping were applied to detect new archaeological features, verified by field surveys and targeted excavation. Inside the hillfort, a combination of magnetic gradiometer surveys, electrical resistivity imaging, ground-penetrating radar, and pulse-induction metal detection were used to reveal the complexity of structures like archaeological pits, shafts, pit houses and modern disturbances in varying soil types. These measurements resulted in a very complex signal of the geophysical data. We used an integrated approach for the interpretation of data from magnetic gradiometer surveys, pulse-induction metal detection and ground-penetrating radar surveys. Thus it became possible to interpret most of the detected anomalies as archaeological features from the Slavic period or modern metal artefacts in the topsoil. The detection of the Iron Age shafts covered by complex settlement structures only became possible using high resolution electrical resistivity tomography and low frequency ground-penetrating radar.
The study investigates a site of a former camp from the time of National Socialism in Berlin (Germany). After the second world war, the study area was also part of the former Berlin Wall complex. Two different radar array systems, an impulse and a step-frequency radar, were applied to the area and compared. Both radar arrays complement each other in their results and allow a differentiated data view. In connection with other sources, the former camp site Blankenfelde could be reconstructed in great detail.
The results of a large-scale magnetometry survey are used to investigate two key aspects of the spatial organization of the Mycenaean palatial settlement at Ayios Vasileios (Laconia, Greece): the extent of the site and the existence, or possibly even zoning of distinct functional areas. These include the palatial core, funerary zones, industrial areas, and infrastructure. The unique situation at Ayios Vasileios, which remained relatively undisturbed after its abandonment, provides the possibility to explore the potential, limitations, and challenges of spatial research based on geophysical data of a prehistoric urban context. We do so by engaging different sources of information: geophysical contrasts mapped by our own and previous surveys, information from the excavations of the palatial core and the adjacent North Cemetery, preliminary observations on surface materials, and wider scholarship on Mycenaean palatial settlement. This dialogue between the disciplines enables us to problematize the interpretation of non-invasive geophysical prospection data and to check our implicit assumptions. Taking into account the different resolutions of these interdisciplinary sources, we formulate hypotheses about the layout and organization of the site which we hope to substantiate in the future by comparing against the surface data and the progress of the excavation.
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