Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ST KITTS.
March 2014
A pole-pole electrode array* was used for the survey. The moving current and
potential electrodes were spaced 0.5 m apart, mounted on a frame made of
plastic pipe. The reference electrodes were placed about 30 meters beyond the
edges of the survey grid, in opposite directions. The electrode spacing (0.5
meters, in this case) is approximately equal to the depth of sensing, BUT the
resulting resistivity is a composite value representing the material near the
electrode. The 0.5 m electrode spacing is common in archaeological
geophysical work.
PROCEDURE
A survey base and outline were established as chosen by David Rollinson.
A search pattern within the outline consisting of a rectangular grid was
established by laying out metric measuring tapes. Directions were established
with a Brunton Pocket Transit, with the declination set to magnetic north 158
degrees west of true north. The grid extended 14 meters in the increasing x
direction (140 degrees from true north, approximately parallel to the ocean shore)
and extended 16 meters in the extending y direction (50 degrees from true north,
approximately perpendicular to the shore). Data were acquired along lines of
constant x values. The data recorded were: line number (x location), the y
location of the leading electrode, the resistivity reading from the meter, and the
data record number in the resistivity meter.
ij
DATA DISPLAY
The x, y and resistivity values were keyed into a computer file, and a contour
map of the values were created. I use software I prepared using the
Octave/Matlabprogramming language. I have many years of experience using
my Matlab/Octave color-contouring program. The program is concise, but not
simple. Matlab is a well-known program package, which is particularly good for
displaying and analyzing scientific data and doing general scientific computation.
It is commonly available at universities but is rather expensive for individual
purchasers. Octave is a freeware Matlab act-alike. A popular freeware program
is available for display of archaeological resistivity data, but it has certain
limitations that make it difficult for me to use.
http://www.sussexarch.org.uk/geophys/snuffler.html
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Oliver Anthony Clark, Anthony Clark,
Seeing Beneath the Soil: Prospecting Methods in Archaeology, 1990.
Figure 2. Plastic frame for electrodes and resistivity meter in use by author and
assistant.
Figure 3. Map of resistivity values.