These guidelines provide an overview of the issues to
be considered when undertaking or commissioning
geophysical survey in archaeology. As every project diff ers
in its requirements (e.g. from fi nding sites to creating
detailed maps of individual structures) and variations in
geological and environmental conditions lead to diff erent
geophysical responses, there is no single ‘best’ survey
technique or methodology. Th is guide, in its European
approach, highlights the various questions to be asked
before a survey is undertaken. It does not provide recipebook
advice on how to do a geophysical survey or a tick
list of which technique is suitable under what conditions.
Experienced archaeological geophysicists should be
consulted to address the questions that are being posed.
Using geophysical techniques and methods inappropriately
will lead to disappointment and may, ultimately, result
in archaeologists not using them at all. “If all you have is
a hammer (or magnetometer), driving a screw becomes
impossible”.
Especially in the American literature the term ‘remote
sensing’ is oft en used to describe geophysical as well as
air and space based exploration of underground features
(e.g. Wiseman and El-Baz 2007). By contrast, and in line
with European traditions, a clear distinction is made
here between ground-based geophysical techniques and
remote sensing techniques. Th is is based on the imaging
principles underlying the respective technologies. Ground
based systems usually collect one spatially registered data
sample from each sensor location (e.g. a single reading
for each magnetometer, or a single trace from each GPR
antenna). Remote sensing techniques, by contrast, collect
spatially resolved data from a whole area of investigation
from each sensor location, using either the system’s optical
aperture (e.g. photography) or a scanning device (e.g. laser
sampling).
These guidelines are based on the experience of the authors
in archaeological geophysics and infl uenced by various
published sources
