Multi‐technique Geophysical Survey in and around the Hillfort Lossow – a Bronze and Iron Age Central Site in Brandenburg, Germany

Abstract

AbstractAt the hillfort Lossow, integrated geophysical surveys were applied as part of an interdisciplinary research project. The importance of the prehistoric and Slavic site rests on various shafts within the hillfort, which are dated to the Early Iron Age and contain findings of offering processes associated with cult practices. At present more than 60 shafts with a depth of 5 to 7.5 m are known from test trenches and excavations inside the hillfort. In the settlement in front of the hillfort, large‐scale magnetic gradiometer surveys and electrical resistivity mapping were applied to detect new archaeological features, verified by field surveys and targeted excavation. Inside the hillfort, a combination of magnetic gradiometer surveys, electrical resistivity imaging, ground‐penetrating radar, and pulse‐induction metal detection were used to reveal the complexity of structures like archaeological pits, shafts, pit houses and modern disturbances in varying soil types. These measurements resulted in a very complex signal of the geophysical data. We used an integrated approach for the interpretation of data from magnetic gradiometer surveys, pulse‐induction metal detection and ground‐penetrating radar surveys. Thus it became possible to interpret most of the detected anomalies as archaeological features from the Slavic period or modern metal artefacts in the topsoil. The detection of the Iron Age shafts covered by complex settlement structures only became possible using high resolution electrical resistivity tomography and low frequency ground‐penetrating radar. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.