3D electrical prospection in the archaeological site of El Pahñú, Hidalgo State, Central Mexico

Argote, Denisse L.; Tejero‐Andrade, Andrés; Nava, Gabriel Miranda; Iriarte, Lizbeth; Farías, Sabrina; Chávez, René E.; López, Fernando Quesada

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.034

Cited by 43 publications

(36 citation statements)

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“…These data can bear directly on anthropological problems and help answer questions about human behaviour and social organization. We believe our results have further reaching implications, beyond the American Southeast, because archaeologists around the world (Argote‐Espino et al ., ; Barton and Fenwick, ; Campana et al ., ; Forte and Pipan, ; Kamei et al ., ; Persson and Olofsson, ; Rodrigues et al ., ; Slater et al ., ) have been investigating flat‐topped mounds and other monuments through geophysical surveys for nearly two decades. It is hoped that the nature of our data and subsequent interpretations can assist other shallow geophysical practitioners in generating meaningful anthropological conclusions about their research sites, whether in the American Southeast or abroad.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Construction History, Labour Investment and Social Change at Ocmulgee National Monument's Mound A, Georgia, USA, Using Ground‐penetrating Radar

Bigman

Lanzarone

2014

Archaeological Prospection

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Prehistoric societies from around the world constructed monumental mounded architecture (earthen pyramids) for a variety of functions, including the foundation for temples or a leader's residence, community stages and cemeteries. Flat-topped earthen mounds often have complicated histories where the function, size, orientation and summit architecture varied throughout time. This paper presents the results from a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey conducted on the summit of Mound A, the largest prehistoric Native American mound at Ocmulgee National Monument located in central Georgia, USA. Our study indicates that performing depth-slice analyses of flat-topped mounds can effectively map successive construction stages over distinct periods of archaeological prehistory. The GPR data show distinctive low-amplitude, discontinuous stratigraphic variations that we interpret to be related to mound fill, which are interrupted by high-amplitude coherent summit reflections. We also maintain sufficient vertical and horizontal resolution to identify summit architecture on earlier mound-use episodes, which is imaged by distinct reflection geometry as patterned linear, square and circular high-amplitude events in GPR depth-slices. The authors recorded four possible mound summits, the western expansion of the mound, and the shifting location and shape of summit architecture; in addition to resolving a discrepancy regarding the location of early excavation units from the 1930s. Shallow geophysical data indicate a decline in the volume of material used over the course of mound construction, and by inference, a decline in the size of the labour force used to construct each stage. We conclude that the power and influence of Ocmulgee's early leadership subsided over the course of Mound A's use, and may have been contested by an emerging faction.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Construction History, Labour Investment and Social Change at Ocmulgee National Monument's Mound A, Georgia, USA, Using Ground‐penetrating Radar

Bigman

Lanzarone

2014

Archaeological Prospection

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“…Later excavations done by the archaeologists over anomaly A unveiled remains of the first constructive phase of this ancient edifice (Argote et al 2013). Vestiges of a room with a paved floor were discovered.…”

Section: Figure 11mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…stabilization problems of foundation soils (Santarato et al 2011). ERT-3D was also exploited in archaeology, e.g., for prospection of tumuli (Tsourlos et al 2012) and characterizing the stability of an unveiled pyramid in Central Mexico (Argote-Espino et al 2013).…”

Section: The Attribution Point and The Sensitivity Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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L‐ and CORNER‐arrays for 3D electric resistivity tomography: an alternative for geophysical surveys in urban zones

Tejero‐Andrade

Cifuentes

Chávez

et al. 2015

Near Surface Geophysics

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Three‐dimensional electric resistivity tomography surveys carried out on heavily urbanized areas represent a cumbersome task since buildings, houses, or other types of obstacles do not allow parallel electric resistivity tomography lines to be deployed. This paper proposes applying any four‐electrode configuration to provide subsurface information in complex urban areas. Such a procedure allows acquiring information beneath a construction by simply surrounding the structure of interest by a series of electric resistivity tomography profiles. Apparent resistivity is obtained from ‘L’‐ and ‘Corner’‐shaped profiles, where alternations between current and potential electrodes are carried out in an automatic way. Four ‘L’‐arrays and four ‘Corner’‐arrays are employed in a square geometry that allows surrounding the studied target to cover the subsurface. The first mentioned array will provide deep information. The second array will cover more of the shallow subsurface information. For the ‘L‐’ and ‘Corner’‐arrays, a mixture of traditional arrays are employed, like the Wenner–Schlumberger, axial, equatorial, azimuthal, and perpendicular dipole arrays. Two synthetic examples are presented to demonstrate the possibilities of the proposed electric arrays. A resistive cube set at the centre of a working cube is modelled. The ‘L‐’ and ‘Corner‐’ arrays are capable to detect such a model; however, dimensions are exaggerated. Later on, an extended wall model is dealt with. Similar results as in the first synthetic example are obtained in terms of geometry and resistivity. However, depth to the top of the wall model is not adequately recovered in comparison with the traditional methodology. Finally, the ‘L’‐ and ‘Corner’‐arrays are applied in an archaeological site named El Pahñu, located in Central Mexico. The new methodology described here is compared with the traditional 3D procedure employing a grid of electric resistivity tomography transects. As expected, the approach discussed in this investigation produced a reasonable solution towards the central portion of the working cube. However, shallow resistive anomalies (size about the electrode interval) were not fully detected, in comparison to a traditional 3D survey, where parallel lines forming a grid could be deployed. The reason is that no electrodes were set towards the central portions of the structure under study. However, the L‐ and Corner‐arrays are more sensitive to anomalies produced by deeper objects, which cannot be observed in the traditional method, especially when objects are located in between the electric resistivity tomography transects.

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“…Each measurement is related to a specific distance between current and potential electrodes. Loops of electrodes with various geometries are used to perform tri-dimensional electrical resistivity tomographies in order to obtain a 3D model of the investigated medium [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Resistivity Profiling (ARP) to Explore Wide Archaeological Areas: The Prehistoric Site of Mont’e Prama, Sardinia, Italy

et al. 2020

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This paper deals with the resistivity continuous surveys on extensive area carried out at the Mont'e Prama archaeological site, in Sardinia (Italy). From 2013 to 2015, new research was performed using both non-destructive surveys and traditional archaeological excavations. The measurements were done in order to find geophysical anomalies related to unseen buried archaeological remains and to define the spatial extension of the ancient necropolis. The electrical resistivity of soils was measured by means of the Automated Resistivity Profiling (ARP©) system. This multi-pole method provided high-resolution maps of electrical resistivity in the whole investigated area using a computer-assisted acquisition tool, towed by a small vehicle. Through this acquisition layout, a surface of 22,800 m 2 was covered. The electrical resistivity data were derived in real time with centimetric horizontal precision through a differential GPS positioning system. Thanks to the simultaneous acquisition of ARP and GPS data, the rigorous georeferencing of the tridimensional experimental dataset was made possible, as well as the reconstruction of a detailed Digital Terrain Model. Here, the experimental results are analyzed and critically discussed by means of the integration of the results obtained by a high-resolution prospection performed with a multi-channel Ground Penetrating Radar system and taking into account other information derived from previous geological and archaeological studies. Geophysical results, jointly with topographic reconstruction, clearly permitted the identification of more interesting areas where future archaeological investigations could be focused.

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3D electrical prospection in the archaeological site of El Pahñú, Hidalgo State, Central Mexico

Cited by 43 publications

References 13 publications

Investigating Construction History, Labour Investment and Social Change at Ocmulgee National Monument's Mound A, Georgia, USA, Using Ground‐penetrating Radar

Investigating Construction History, Labour Investment and Social Change at Ocmulgee National Monument's Mound A, Georgia, USA, Using Ground‐penetrating Radar

L‐ and CORNER‐arrays for 3D electric resistivity tomography: an alternative for geophysical surveys in urban zones

Automated Resistivity Profiling (ARP) to Explore Wide Archaeological Areas: The Prehistoric Site of Mont’e Prama, Sardinia, Italy

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