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A possible archaeological site in the Three Gorge Area of China: a new method applied to the processing and interpretation of magnetic data
Author(s) -
Wang Yun,
Wang Miaoyue,
Yan Yafen
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
archaeological prospection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.785
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1099-0763
pISSN - 1075-2196
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0763(1998060)5:2<81::aid-arp89>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - excavation , archaeology , magnetic survey , interpretation (philosophy) , china , geology , civilization , magnetic anomaly , anomaly (physics) , geography , history , computer science , paleontology , physics , condensed matter physics , programming language
Locating the possible archaeological site quickly and accurately became very important in the Three Gorge area of China after the Three Gorge Project (TGP) started. The Chu Culture is a very important part of Chinese civilization, which originated in the middle of the Three Gorge area. A historic book records that there are six large and old graves in this area. Location of these graves will help increase our knowledge about the Chu Culture. A magnetic survey was therefore used at Hetu Hill, and a triangular shaped anomaly was found. We could not determine whether this anomaly was an interesting body because of some near‐surface and surface noise. In this paper, we introduce a new automatic method, pattern recognition (cluster analysis), to process and interpret the magnetic data. In this way, a possible interesting anomaly was recognized, which will be proved by excavation later in the year. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.