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Integrating geophysical survey with the study of community settlement patterns can be challenging because of cultural and environmental factors including (1) site formation and house preservation, (2) the coordination of domestic tasks at extra-household scales, and (3) the survey environment of the study area. In this article, we present the results of a program of geophysical survey comprising magnetic susceptibility and magnetometry at Weeden Island (8Pi1)—a shell-bearing, wooded site with nearly pure sand soils on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Combining remote sensing techniques mitigated some of the challenges of surveying forested terrain while providing insight into community organization at a site with minimal preserved structural remains. Compared with previous traditional surveys of the area, the geophysical survey extended the recognized boundaries of occupational activity, provided additional definition to the spatial structure of deposits, and allowed us to identify specific domestic features. Excavations at each area of intensive occupation provided evidence about the organization of the domestic economy at the site and showed the potential of this approach to reveal significant patterns of community settlement.

Geophysical survey and test excavations have located the remains of St Mary's Fort, the 1634 fortified settlement built by the European settler-colonists who founded the Maryland colony. The archaeological remains contrast with historical descriptions of St Mary's Fort, offering a unique opportunity to understand Maryland's earliest and most poorly documented period of colonial life.

[EN] This article argues that a holistic approach to documenting and understanding the physical evidence for individual cities would enhance our ability to address major questions about urbanisation, urbanism, cultural identities and economic processes. At the same time we suggest that providing more comprehensive data-sets concerning Greek cities would represent an important contribution to cross-cultural studies of urban development and urbanism, which have often overlooked relevant evidence from Classical Greece. As an example of the approach we are advocating, we offer detailed discussion of data from the Archaic and Classical city of Olynthos, in the Halkidiki. Six seasons of fieldwork here by the Olynthos Project, together with legacy data from earlier projects by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and by the Greek Archaeological Service, combine to make this one of the best-documented urban centres surviving from the Greek world. We suggest that the material from the site offers the potential to build up a detailed ‘urban profile’, consisting of an overview of the early development of the community as well as an in-depth picture of the organisation of the Classical settlement. Some aspects of the urban infrastructure can also be quantified, allowing a new assessment of (for example) its demography. This article offers a sample of the kinds of data available and the sorts of questions that can be addressed in constructing such a profile, based on a brief summary of the interim results of fieldwork and data analysis carried out by the Olynthos Project, with a focus on research undertaken during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons., [EL] Το άρθρο υποστηρίζει ότι μια ολιστική προσέγγιση στην τεκμηρίωση και κατανόηση των υλικών καταλοίπων σε επίπεδο πόλεων θα μας βοηθούσε στην προσπάθειά μας να απαντήσουμε σημαντικά ερωτήματα σχετικά με τη διαδικασία της αστικοποίησης, τον αστικό τρόπο ζωής, τις πολιτισμικές ταυτότητες και τις οικονομικές διεργασίες στον αρχαίο κόσμο. Ταυτόχρονα θεωρούμε ότι η συγκρότηση πιο περιεκτικών συνόλων από δεδομένα που αφορούν αρχαίες ελληνικές πόλεις θα προσέφερε σημαντικά και στη διαπολιτισμική μελέτη της αστικής εξέλιξης και του αστικού τρόπου ζωής, η οποία έχει συχνά αγνοήσει τα σχετικά στοιχεία από την κλασική Ελλάδα. Ως παράδειγμα για την προσέγγιση που προτείνουμε προσφέρουμε μιαν αναλυτική συζήτηση των δεδομένων από την αρχαϊκή και κλασική πόλη της Ολύνθου στη Χαλκιδική. Ο συνδυασμός έξι περιόδων έρευνας πεδίου από το Πρόγραμμα της Ολύνθου και στοιχείων από τα αρχεία παλαιότερων προγραμμάτων της Αμερικανικής Σχολής Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα και της Ελληνικής Αρχαιολογικής Υπηρεσίας καθιστά την Όλυνθο ένα από τα καλύτερα τεκμηριωμένα αστικά κέντρα του αρχαίου ελληνικού κόσμου που έχουν διασωθεί. Υποστηρίζουμε ότι το υλικό από τη θέση μάς δίνει τη δυνατότητα να σκιαγραφήσουμε ένα λεπτομερές «αστικό προφίλ», το οποίο αποτελείται από μια επισκόπηση της πρώιμης εξέλιξης της κοινότητας καθώς και μια σε βάθος απεικόνιση της οργάνωσης του οικισμού της κλασικής περιόδου. Η δυνατότητα ποσοτικοποίησης κάποιων παραμέτρων της αστικής υποδομής μάς επιτρέπει να προβούμε σε νέες εκτιμήσεις, για παράδειγμα σχετικά με τη δημογραφία. Το άρθρο προσφέρει ένα δείγμα του τύπου των διαθέσιμων δεδομένων και του είδους των ερωτημάτων που μπορεί να τεθούν στη σκιαγράφηση ενός τέτοιου προφίλ, βασισμένο σε μια περίληψη των προσωρινών αποτελεσμάτων από τις εργασίες πεδίου και τις αναλύσεις των δεδομένων που διενήργησε το Πρόγραμμα της Ολύνθου και με έμφαση στην έρευνα που διεξήχθη κατά το 2017, το 2018 και το 2019.

From 1565 to 1570, Spain established no fewer than three networks of presidios (fortified military settlements) across portions of its frontier territories in La Florida and New Spain. Juan Pardo's network of six forts, extending from the Atlantic coast over the Appalachian Mountains, was the least successful of these presidio systems, lasting only from late 1566 to early 1568. The failure of Pardo's defensive network has long been attributed to poor planning and an insufficient investment of resources. Yet recent archaeological discoveries at the Berry site in western North Carolina—the location of both the Native American town of Joara and Pardo's first garrison, Fort San Juan—warrants a reappraisal of this interpretation. While previous archaeological research at Berry concentrated on the domestic compound where Pardo's soldiers resided, the location of the fort itself remained unknown. In 2013, the remains of Fort San Juan were finally identified south of the compound, the first of Pardo's interior forts to be discovered by archaeologists. Data from excavations and geophysical surveys suggest that it was a substantial defensive construction. We attribute the failure of Pardo's network to the social geography of the Native South rather than to an insufficient investment of resources.

Research on the cities of the Classical Greek world has traditionally focused on mapping the organisation of urban space and studying major civic or religious buildings. More recently, newer techniques such as field survey and geophysical survey have facilitated exploration of the extent and character of larger areas within urban settlements, raising questions about economic processes. At the same time, detailed analysis of residential buildings has also supported a change of emphasis towards understanding some of the functional and social aspects of the built environment as well as purely formal ones. This article argues for the advantages of analysing Greek cities using a multidisciplinary, multi-scalar framework which encompasses all of these various approaches and adds to them other analytical techniques (particularly micro-archaeology). We suggest that this strategy can lead towards a more holistic view of a city, not only as a physical place, but also as a dynamic community, revealing its origins, development and patterns of social and economic activity. Our argument is made with reference to the research design, methodology and results of the first three seasons of fieldwork at the city of Olynthos, carried out by the Olynthos Project.

Between 2010 and 2012, the AROURA project conducted magnetometric prospection in the ancient polder around the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–1190 b.c.) fortress of Glas, mainland Greece. As had been hypothesized, the anomalies detected were consistent with a system of agricultural fields. This system appears to have been irrigated and drained through previously identified hydraulic mechanisms in and around the polder. Comparison of soil profiles of anomalies with those of background areas, including their magnetic susceptibilities, corroborated magnetometric data. Anomalies were traced from sampled to unsampled areas through corresponding reclassified satellite bandwidths. Constituent sediments of features discovered were dated to the Late Bronze Age through AMS radiocarbon and OSL analyses. The results validated the use of extensive geophysics to detect and investigate ancient agricultural landscapes.

This essay aims to introduce readers to geophysical methods that are currently employed to help archaeologists study the past. Geophysical techniques exploit differences between the physical properties of buried remains and the natural soil to allow their detection and characterization without—or in advance of—digging. When successfully applied, they have the potential to dramatically enhance archaeological investigations by providing a map of buried remains that can (i) help to assess an area for its archaeological potential; (ii) guide subsequent excavation; or (iii) be used as a tool to define and test research questions in their own right. Given the relatively rapid and noninvasive nature of these methods, it is possible to examine entire sites and landscapes, in some instances detecting features as small as individual post holes. While these techniques are routinely integrated into archaeological investigations in some parts of the world, their potential in many areas is only starting to be realized. It is expected that we will see continued growth in the number of surveys being conducted, as well as in the sizes of areas encompassed and in the range of their archaeological application. This essay will briefly introduce the major geophysical techniques and types of buried features that may be detected. Recent developments in various aspects of the discipline are then summarized, before discussing ways in which the results may be applied more broadly in future archaeological and anthropological investigations. Keywords: archaeology; geophysics; magnetometry; GPR ; resistance; electromagnetic; prospection; remote sensing; landscape

The growth and decline of large village communities is a topic of considerable interest for archaeologists studying the development of complex regional polities. In this article, demographic information is presented for the transitional Mississippian period Washausen mound center located in the American Bottom region of west-central Illinois. Population estimates are calculated based on data for residential architecture collected in 2011 during an extensive geophysical survey and excavations at the site. A magnetometer survey was conducted over 8 ha and produced a relatively complete site map revealing numerous household clusters organized around a central, earthen mound-and-plaza complex. Population estimates and site spatial information for Washausen are compared with similar data for earlier village communities located nearby, as well as other global village sequences, producing a demographic profile demonstrating a pattern of village growth and decline in the area after the onset of sedentism and agricultural intensification. Information from the region and elsewhere suggests that the development of larger communities through time resulted in part through frequent population movements as village segments fissioned and aggregated to form new communities. This research finding has the potential to inform models for the growth of much larger American Bottom centers such as Pulcher and Cahokia.

Geophysical data have the potential to significantly contribute to archaeological research projects when effectively integrated with more traditional methods. Although pre-existing archaeological questions about a site may be answered using geophysical methods, beginning an investigation with an extensive geophysical survey can assist in understanding the function and archaeological potential of a site, and may even transform preconceptions about the type and spatial organisation of features that are present. In this way, these prospection tools not only accurately locate and map features to allow recovery of cultural material for identification and dating, we argue that they can go much further, allowing us to prospect for new and appropriate archaeological and anthropological research questions. Such an approach is best realised when geophysical and traditional archaeologists work together to define new objectives and strategies to address them, and by maintaining this collaboration to allow continual feedback between geophysical and archaeological data. A flexible research design is therefore essential in order to allow the methodologies to adapt to the site, the results, and the questions being posed. This methodology is demonstrated through two case studies from mound sites in southeast USA: the transitional Mississippian Washausen site in Illinois; and the Middle Woodland Garden Creek site in North Carolina. In both cases, integrating geophysical methods throughout the archaeological investigations has resulted in multiple phases of generating and addressing new research objectives. Although clearly beneficial at these two mound sites in southeast USA, this interdisciplinary approach has obvious implications well beyond these temporal and geographical areas.

Recent magnetometry survey at the late Neolithic site of Dayatou (大崖头) in the Tao River (洮河) Valley of Gansu Province, China, has revealed a complex, multiperiod habitation site made up of several discrete occupation clusters. While this site was previously interpreted as a large (~140,000 m2), primarily Majiayao (马家窑) period site, our geophysical survey, augering, and targeted excavation results point to the site containing several smaller (~8500 m2) areas of intense occupation separated by magnetically quieter zones in some areas and ditch features in others. The occupations appear to date to varying Majiayao subphases as well as subsequent periods. These results call into question the usefulness of site size rank hierarchies based on surface scatters of pottery alone, which are commonly used in studies of early complexity in China. This study demonstrates the usefulness of geophysical survey combined with targeted excavation for understanding the complex development processes at work in the formation of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in northern China.

Rowan Flad, Timothy Horsley, Jade d'Alpoim Guedes, Gwen Bennett, Shuicheng Li, Zhanghua Jiang, Jiang Ming & He Kunyu (2014). Survey, Excavation and Geophysics at Songjiaheba – A Small Bronze Age Village in the Chengdu Plain. Asian Perspectives (52) 1: 119-142.

Introduction This paper introduces an integrated survey methodology that is being employed by the Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey (CPAS) to examine settlement patterns in the context of natural and social landscapes in Sichuan Province, China. The discoveries of the Bronze Age sites of Sangxingdui and Jinsha in the Chengdu Plain have raised questions about the emergence of a complex society in this region, especially as it compares with other societies in the Yellow River valley in Northe...

This poster presents recent results from a geophysical survey being conducted on alluvial terraces adjacent to the North Branch of the Upper Potomac River in Western Maryland, USA (Fig. 1). This area has seen very little systematic archaeological survey; however, a few prehistoric sites have been recorded from surface finds in the vicinity. Floodplain sites represent some of the more valuable archaeological resources in this region, yet workers continue to rely on labour intensive and often i...