Demerre, I.

Evangelinos, D.

Missiaen, T.

Van Meirvenne, M.

Open Marine Archive

 - 44 -  
Buried under the sand: ‘Integrated geophysical mapping of ancient 
peat exploitation at Raversijde beach’ 
Evangelinos D.
1
, T. Missiaen
1
, I. Demerre
2
 and M. Van Meirvenne
3
 
1 
Renard Centre of Marine Geology, Ghent University 
 Email: dim.evage@gmail.com  
2
 Flanders Heritage Agency  
3
 Soil Spatial Inventory Techniques, Ghent University 
 
The Belgian coastline has been subject to major changes during the last few thousand years, not 
only as a result of sealevel change but also due to human interference. This has had a direct impact 
on the land-use and human settlement in the coastal area. In spring 2012 a geophysical test survey 
was carried out in an intertidal area at Raversijde, combining (for the first time) marine seismic 
profiling at high tide with electromagnetic measurements on the beach at low tide. The main goal 
was to map the previous state of the coast by tracing geomorphological and anthropogenic features 
that are no longer visible but instead lie buried underneath a thick layer of sand. The geophysical 
data allowed to map the traces of peat exploitation and possible settlement remnants of Late 
Medieval time, as well as the complex palaeogully system consisting of shallow and deeper 
channels. The research is unique since it combined both marine and terrestrial data from the same 
area with a vertical and horizontal resolution that was previously unfeasible. It clearly shows that 
the integrated use of complementary geophysical methods (seismic and electromagnetic) gives a 
new and promising perspective for a better understanding of shallow intertidal environments and 
their archaeological potential. 
 
 
References
Mathys M. 2009. The Quaternary geological evolution of the Belgian Continental Shelf, southern 
North Sea. PhD thesis, Ghent University. 
Missiaen T., S. Murphy., L. Loncke, J.-P. Henriet. 2002. Very high-resolution seismic mapping of 
shallow gas in the Belgian coastal zone. Continental Shelf Research 22(16):2291-2301. 
Missiaen T. 2010. Acoustic imaging offshore Raversijde. Internal report, RCMG. 
 


Buried under the sand: ‘Integrated geophysical mapping of ancient peat exploitation at Raversijde beach’

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