DART Project » Methodology

DART is a Science and Heritage project funded by the AHRC and EPSRC

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Methodology

The full methodology is articulated in a mindmap which can be found here.

The programme of research has been designed specifically to identify physical, chemical and biological contrast factors that may allow the detection of archaeological residues (both directly and by proxy) using sensing devices. To determine contrast factors samples and measurements will be taken on and around different sub-surface archaeological features at different times of the day and year to ensure that a representative range of conditions is covered. Field measurements will include geophysical and hyperspectral surveys, thermal profiling, soil moisture and spectral reflectance. Laboratory analysis of samples will include geochemistry and particle size. Models will be developed that translate these physical values into spectral, magnetic and electrical measures in order to determine detection parameters. This will allow DART to address the following research issues:

What are the factors that produce archaeological contrasts?
How do these contrast processes vary over space and time?
What processes cause these variations?
How can we best detect these contrasts (sensors and conditions)?

The key will be to understand the dynamic interaction between soils, vegetation and archaeological residues and how these affect detection with sensing devices. This requires understanding how the archaeology differs from, and dynamically interacts with, the localised soils and vegetation and how these differences can be detected.