Robotic total station for microtopographic mapping: an example from the Northern Great Plains

Abstract

AbstractPast human activities in cultural landscapes are often expressed by subtle variations in surface topography that reflect buried archaeological features. When seen from the air under low sunlight angles, resultant ‘shadow marks’ form a cornerstone of site detection in aerial archaeology. Past attempts to quantify and map such variations across large archaeological landscapes have resorted to aerial photogrammetry, electronic total stations, air‐ and ground‐based lidar, and kinematic global positioning systems. The most commonly used surveying instrument is the total station, but its slow rate of data acquisition makes it poorly suited for collecting vast amounts of elevation data over large areas, although it is often used for that task. A robotic total station, examined here, is a relatively new technology that provides a rapid survey solution. It requires only a single person to operate the total station by radio linkage from a control pad affixed to a wheeled reflector rod. As the rod is rolled over the landscape it is automatically tracked, and measurements of surface topography may be acquired to subcentimetre accuracy continuously, at a rate of one measurement per second. A case study from the Double Ditch State Historic Site in the Great Plains of North Dakota, a fortified earthlodge village with culturally significant surface expressions, exemplifies this potential. The loci of prehistoric houses, borrow pits, fortification ditches, middens and defensive mounds are clearly revealed in the topographic mapping. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.