The forensic application of ground-penetrating radar, Tekoha Jevy indigenous village, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

Any archaeological site, according to the Brazilian Federal Constitution, is a patrimony of the Union; consequently, when crimes against this cultural patrimony occur, it becomes the responsibility of the Federal Police of Brazil. In 2013, there was a complaint to the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor's Office about the depredation of an archaeological site and forced withdrawal of the indigenous people because of the construction of a multimodal port in the city of Guaíra, in the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil. Thus, the Technical–Scientific Sector of the Federal Police Department, in partnership with Brazilian universities, used standard geophysical methods such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to investigate and locate buried archaeological targets. This paper discusses the results of 2D and 3D investigations in the Tekoha Jevy indigenous village, located in Guaíra County. In the field, 32 parallel sections of GPR data were acquired using 250 and 700 MHz shielded antennas. The results showed several anomalies, two of which were subjected to field checks using excavations, which revealed several artefacts such as ceramic fragments associated with ancient indigenous occupations on the banks of the Paraná River.

Archaeological prospection of a prehistoric lithic workshop site using ground penetrating radar with a high‐frequency antenna unit

“…There are known markers to help detect small‐scale artefacts and their fragments—diffracted wave hyperbolas generated by local features whose electrophysical properties are in contrast with the enclosing ground. For example, Canata et al (2019) demonstrated how distinct the ceramic items with 10 to 35 cm dimensions buried at depths down to 37 cm were in the GPR cross‐section obtained at 700 MHz frequency.…”