The Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Methods and Soil Analysis in the Study of Sites Disturbed by Agricultural Activity

The Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Methods and Soil Analysis
in the Study of Sites Disturbed by Agricultural Activity

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.103-111

I.V. Zhurbin¹, A.V. Borisov², A.I. Nazmutdinova¹, V.N. Milich¹, R.P. Petrov¹, M.G. Ivanova¹, R.N. Modin³, L.F. Knyazeva¹, N.G. Vorobieva⁴, and S.V. Zinchuk^5
1Udmurt Federal Research Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, T. Baramzinoy 34, Izhevsk, 426067, Russia
²Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya 2, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia
³Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117036, Russia
⁴LTD “FINKO”, 10 let Oktyabrya 24-62, Izhevsk, 426011, Russia
⁵Pushchino State Institute of Natural Sciences, Pr. Nauki 3, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia

This study is based on an interdisciplinary approach to the prospection of archaeological sites impacted by modern agricultural plowing activity. We applied remote sensing, combined with geophysical, geochemical, and archaeological methods at Kushmanskoye III—a medieval Finno-Ugric site in the Cheptsa River basin, northern Udmurtia (9th—13th centuries AD). As a result of many years of plowing, the site cannot be visually demarcated, and visual traces of its extent have been obliterated. Scientific methods included aerial photography from unmanned vehicles (visual range, thermal, and multispectral imaging), geophysical techniques (resistivity and magnetometry surveys, ground penetrating radar, and electrical resistivity tomography), and soil studies (grain size composition, micromorphology, and chemical and biological analyses of soil cores). As a result, we effectively traced the boundaries of the site and of its “household periphery”, delineating areas with various degrees of disruption. Our research identified two lines of defensive constructions, previously invisible on the surface. Our findings have enabled us to initiate revision of the site’s status in the register of state-protected archaeological resources. The location of geophysical anomalies, caused by buried features, reveals a regularized row layout to the site. The results are supported by those of archaeological surveys.

Keywords: Medieval sites, agricultural damage, boundaries, layout, aerial photography, geophysics, geochemistry