Geophysical prospection in the southern Harz Mountains, Germany: Settlement history and landscape archaeology along the interface of the latène and przeworsk cultures

摘要

The southern Harz Mountains are located on the northern periphery of the Latène culture, which was organized around central sites. Here, towards the end of the second century bc, settlements of the Przeworsk culture appear that provide evidence of a process of migration into a limited 'cultural island'. In this archaeological context we have used large-scale magnetic mapping and electrical resistivity tomography to determine localities where subsequently archaeological excavations were carried out. Magnetic prospecting has been performed with a multisensor gradiometer array mounted on a cart. Using a newly developed multichannel data logger LEA-D2 supporting a GPS unit for accurate real-time positioning, high-resolution measurements with a rate of more than 1hah-1 became possible. Electrical resistivity tomography has been carried out over selected sites to gain additional information on the subsurface from a different perspective.