Archaeological investigation in Sendai Castle using ground-penetrating radar

Abstract

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was applied to the 400-year-old Sendai Castle in Japan during site excavation. The aim of the experiment was to detect old stone walls under the castle, and to compare the effectiveness of 50- and 100-MHz antennae in locating and identifying archaeological features. Both common-offset and common-midpoint (CMP) data of 50- and 100-MHz were collected along three survey lines. We processed the data and compared the results obtained by different observation and data-processing methods. It is easy to identify reflections from underground objects on 1-m common-offset 100-MHz profiles, but it is difficult to recognize them on 50-MHz profiles of the same offset. The comparable post-stack migration result of the stacked data of 50-MHz and the migration stack section of 50-MHz CMP data with the results of 100-MHz common-offset data, however, indicate that low frequency radar images can be improved by both data acquisition and processing techniques. We also know from the processed results that the migration stack method is better than the post-stacking migration method. The GPR results are consistent to a great extent with the excavations. The GPR method can be applied to archaeological investigations, before and during excavation. Appropriate data acquisition and processing schemes are important in archaeological prospection using GPR. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.