Non Invasive Techniques In Archaeology

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Pick a region or landscape. Outline the non-invasive (i.e. without excavation) archaeological techniques you might employ to study past human activity within that area. Non-invasive Archaeology is a relatively new form of surveying sites, it is faster, cheaper and most of all non destructive (David, 2001,501). In the 21st century the focus of archaeological survey has shifted from the discovery and the excavation of sites to the surface survey of the whole surrounding landscape using both geo-physical and non geo-physical methods of excavation, with archaeologist becoming increasingly aware of the high cost and destructiveness of invasive techniques (Renfrew and Bahn, 2008,73). The use of non-invasive techniques can reveal surprising amounts of information on sites, from using aerial photography to supplement observations or to discover new sites (Green and Moore, 2010,66), to using geo-physical methods such has proton gradiometers to measure soil density and locate unseen structures. Using non-destructive remote sensing have become key in the excavation of a site, and with the use of both aerial photography and geo-physical methods it is sometimes possible to obtain valid archaeological evidence without the use of invasive excavation (Aitken,1974,189). Using all these methods it would be possible to obtain information on human activity in the farmland of Somerset, without destroying the site by using invasive techniques. This essay will look at non-invasive techniques against invasive archaeological techniques to study the human past in the Somerset farmland. Non-invasive techniques can usual be split into 2 main categories, geo-physical/chemical and non geo-physical/chemical which includes field walking and other techniques. Aerial photography has made one of the biggest contributions to archeological fieldwork and recording (Greene and Moore, 2010,63).

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