Premium
A Multimethodological Approach for the Investigation of Archaeological Ditches – Exemplified by the Early Bronze Age Settlement of Fidvár Near Vráble (Slovakia)
Author(s) -
Nowaczinski E.,
Schukraft G.,
Hecht S.,
Rassmann K.,
Bubenzer O.,
Eitel B.
Publication year - 2012
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/arp.1434
Subject(s) - archaeology , bronze age , settlement (finance) , geology , bronze , prospection , geography , computer science , world wide web , payment
Buried or refilled archaeological ditches offer great opportunities in terms of reconstructing past human activities and human–nature interactions. The Early Bronze Age settlement of Fidvár in southwestern Slovakia offers excellent opportunities for this kind of geoarchaeological study. Based on previous magnetic prospection further geophysical, sedimentological and geochemical investigations were carried out focusing on the three existing semi‐elliptical early Bronze Age ditches. Afterwards an appropriate assortment of methods was chosen and successfully applied to two of the ditches in order to reconstruct their lateral and vertical geometries. Alongside interesting archaeological outcomes for the Fidvár site our results highlight the advantageous combination of geophysical and geochemical data. Only this multimethodological approach allowed both a universal and precise reconstruction of the archaeological features. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.