Non-destructive techniques in English gardens: geophysical prospecting

Abstract

Abstract Buried archaeological sites are identifiable from the almost indelible nature of the geophysical record of past human activity beneath the modem ground surface. Geophysical survey can be a most effective technique of archaeological evaluation, although it has only occasionally been applied to former garden features within the British Isles (figure 1 and table 1). Recent reviews of garden archaeology7 concentrate on the data available from topographic, documentary and aerial photographic sources, but do not consider in detail the potential of other methods of non-destructive investigation. There is, perhaps, a perception that garden features are too shallow and ephemeral to leave a clearly detectable geophysical signature.8 While this may often be the case, the value of geophysics in this rapidly developing subject has not been adequately acknowledged. This paper illustrates, through case-study examples, the success that has been achieved to date and the potential that such techniques offer for th...