Relatively few geophysical surveys have shown how buried traces of agricultural fields can be revealed. An ancient Greek vineyard on the Crimean peninsula was first suggested in a satellite photograph; however, it was discovered only with a magnetic survey. This survey found a 5.7‐ha field that is crossed by about 80 buried stone walls that are parallel and spaced by 2.6 m; this pattern is found only in the vineyard. Later excavations revealed underground walls in this vineyard. The magnetic survey also detected simple magnetic anomalies at three of the four corners of the vineyard. Excavations found that these anomalies are caused by pits that were dug by the ancient Greeks into bedrock to a depth of 2.5 m; the purpose of these pits is not known. The magnetic properties of soil and stone were measured in the excavations, and the magnetic anomalies of the features were calculated. These calculations agree with the measurements, and this means that the entire source of the anomalies was discovered. The interpretation of the magnetic map was adaptive, and it improved as excavations added more information. The archaeological importance of the Ortli vineyard is described along with the efficient procedures that allowed its discovery and mapping. Using the same techniques that were applied at Ortli, another ancient Greek vineyard and farmhouse was later found 1.5 km away. This vineyard has dimensions that are 25% larger than those of the first vineyard. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two examples of magnetic investigations of large barrows in Denmark and Crimea (Ukraine) are presented. The magnetic field over the Danish barrows containing megalithic graves results from the superposition of many different dipole anomalies from granite boulders. The magnetic map revealed a corridor and a chamber of a barrow in Draaby, which are adjacent to a similar, previously excavated feature. A circular wall of smaller stones, which surrounds the two chambers and corridors, is clearly visible on the magnetic map. The limestone building material used for the internal construction of the Scythian barrows in Crimea is practically nonmagnetic, while the soil in these regions has a significant magnetic susceptibility (about 10-100ϫ10 -5 ISO). This makes it possible to identify stone structures by their negative anomalies on magnetic maps. Each of the three large barrows is surrounded by a circular negative anomaly that is 50 m in diameter. The anomaly is caused by walls (cromlechs) inside the barrows. Within each barrow, a long negative anomaly (up to -20 nT) that starts at the cromlech and leads toward the center of the barrow is an indication of a rectangular stone construction inside the barrow (side crypt). The central part of each barrow is characterized by a positive or a negative anomaly, which reflects the state of preservation of the central chamber.
Abstract-Fallow lands in ancient agricultural areas of Northwestern Crimea which had experienced repeated phases of agricultural activity at different time periods (the Late Bronze Age, antiquity, and the last 150−200 years) have been studied. Differences in biogeochemical fluxes for virgin and fallow soils are analyzed from the chemical elements determining the composition of secondary clay minerals. The most informative and evolutionarily significant biogeochemical indicators of relict agricultural loads and duration of fallow periods are specified.
In Denmark iron production, by means of reducing bog-iron ore with charcoal, was carried out at least between the second and seventh century AD. Since the 1960s magnetic mapping of iron slag remains have been used extensively at several sites in the southwestern part of Jutland in Denmark (e.g. at Drengsted, Snorup, Krarup and Yderik). A description of some of the magnetic surveying results, ideas of magnetic modelling, and magnetic and chemical analysis of slag from some of these areas are given. The Danish Iron Age slag pits are strongly magnetic, and consequently they are quite easy to locate magnetically. The slag, however, is often magnetically non-homogeneous, and accordingly the remanent magnetic direction of the original magnetization is not uniform. Hence individual slag pits are not good recorders of the direction of Earth's magnetic field. Therefore dating of individual slag pits by means of a magnetic mastercurve, using either inversion and modelling of the magnetic field anomaly from the slag, or by using conventional palaeomagnetic techniques by orientated cores, are still difficult to make with sufficient resolution.
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