A rival to Stonehenge? Geophysical survey at Stanton Drew, England

• Autores: Andrew David, Mark A. Cole, Tim Horsley, Neil Linford, Paul K. Linford, Louise Martin
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 78, Nº 300, 2004, págs. 341-358
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The development of geophysical survey remains a spearhead-priority for new research and cultural resource management alike – since geophysics can find and map sites without destroying them. However, there are current weaknesses of sensitivity and resolution – the instruments cannot easily “see” small features like graves and post-holes of which so many ancient sites are principally composed. Great hopes have been invested in caesium vapour magnetometers, which the Centre for Archaeology has been promoting in England – perhaps nowhere with such dramatic success as at Stanton Drew, Somerset. Here, geophysical techniques have brought to light the lines of broad circles belonging to a previously unrecognised henge monument, and the caesium magnetometer showed these circles to be composed of individual pits about 1.4 m in diameter. The fine focus achieved for these buried features augers well for the discovery and preservation of similar sites and monuments in the future.