Physics

Fort Hardy Park Site, USA, New York, Schuylerville.                      2006-Present

Hartgen Archaeological Associates, Inc. is working with the Town of Schulyerville under a National Park Service grant to identify the precise location of Ft. Hardy (a French and Indian War / Revolutionary War Fort). On October 17, 1777 General Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates and his army stacked their weapons at Fort Hardy. Archaeological shovel testing at the site failed to identify evidence of the fort. We plan on using magnetic and ground-penetrating radar surveys to locate the geophysical signature of the fort (if one still exists). The site is currently a town park with playing fields, and the site has been heavily landscaped. Hopefully some evidence of the fort remains.

Center for Natural Sciences Alternative Landscape Project, USA, New York, Ithaca.                      2005-Present

The Center for Natural Sciences Sustainability Group is experimenting with a variety of alternative native grasses to determine which grasses can survive in the Ithaca climate with the least amount of maintenance. The controlled plots provide an excellent opportunity to examine how different plants change the magnetic properties of the surface soils.

Weaver Farm Site Cemetary, USA, New York, Reading.                                             2005-Present

This project is in the research design phase and intends to use geophysical methods to locate historic burial plots.

Victory Woods Battlefield Site, USA, New York, Saratoga.                                         2005

This request for proposals from Hartgen Archaeological Associates, Inc. including my archaeological geophysics proposal was accepted by the National Park Service. The National Park Service did not specify a time frame in their request for proposals announcement. Due to their subsequent demand that the geophysics work be completed by the end of October I had to withdraw from this project. I've left it here in this list because it was given a project sequence number because I did not imagine the project not happening once the proposal was approved by the national park service.

Bett's Historic Farmstead Site, USA, New York, near Troy.                                   2005-Present

This project was in support of Chris Hazel's (H.A.Z.Ex. CRM firm) Phase II project at the Betts Historic Farmstead Site to determine National Register of Historic Places eligibility under criterion D. The magnetometer survey was designed to identify potential magnetic anomalies associated with subsurface features created by archaeological features of interest to the cultural resource management project.

The Betts Historic Farmstead Site (site number A0803.000218) is located near Troy, New York. The site is being investigated as part of a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) study prior to construction. Phase I surveys in 2004 documented the site and sufficient evidence exists to warrant a Phase II investigation. The site dates to the early 1800's with multiple uses to include hay-fields, livestock, a slaughterhouse, a butchershop, and a tavern. Nathan B. Betts's tavern held the first town meeting, and the farm may have provided meat to the Troy meat-packing industry. The site is important in its potential for providing information about early economy and economic adaptation within the context of a settler family farm site.

Site of Eight Mounds , USA, New York, Fingerlakes National Forest.                                 2005-Present

Topographic mapping to establish mound locations and spatial dimensions. Future work will do more detailed topographic mapping, and using GPR, resistivity, and magnetometry to non-invasively determine mound structure.

Whepley War of 1812 Shipbuilding Site, USA, New York, near Sackets Harbor.                               2005

The goals of these studies are to identify the former locations of the shiphouse, blockhouses, barracks, and worker shanties by locating the magnetic geophysical signature left by construction and demolition of these structures. Additionally, the results of the magnetometer surveys will help guide archaeological excavations to be conducted by Dr. Timothy Abel (a War of 1812 era archaeological specialist).

Examining the use of circular survey method during magnetometer surveys, USA, New York, Ithaca.               2005

My research group is always looking at ways to gather data more efficiently and more accurately. All of the surveys we have seen are done using rectilinear coordinate systems, but why box ones self into a square. We explored using a circular coordinate system for surveying. Theoretically this is a superior method, but our initial experiments indicated real problems with positional errors. Other work on reducing positional errors may make circular surveying more feasible.

Corey Cayuga (Healing?) Village Site, USA, New York, near Aurora.                                         2005

Corey Village site is a 500-year-old Cayuga village that may be a healing village due to the large number of medicinal herbs present at the site. Geophysical surveys intended on mapping the village layout to help guide Ithaca College's 2005 archaeology summer field school excavations.

Correcting GPR data for the Pitch-and-Roll of the antenna, USA, New York, Ithaca.                              2005

Ground-penetrating radar surveys often account for changes in elevation, but none that I know of adjust the data to account for the pitch and roll of the antenna. Because the radar antenna needs to be in contact with the ground changes in topography keep the antenna perpendicular to the ground surface. Common practice is to assume that radar signals come from sources vertically below the antenna and ignore the angle of the antenna due to the ground surface. This creates positional errors in the reflections and distorts related reflections impeding interpretation of the data.

Sackets Harbor Battlefield Site, USA, New York, Sackets Harbor.                                             2005

Archaeologist Tim Abel and I submitted a proposal to conduct magnetic and archaeological investigations to locate the burial site of British soilders from the War of 1812 at Sackets Harbor battlefield, NY. Our proposal was not selected.

Understanding the effect of "magnetic" rocks on magnetometer surveys, USA, New York, Ithaca.            2004-Present

While working at the Gila Encantada site in New Mexico I noticed that using hand-held compasses to orient archaeological excavation units on magnetic north was producing units aligned in dramatically different directions. These alignment errors seemed to be caused by the magnetic properties of rocks on the ground surface. We collected rocks from the site and began studying their effect on magnetic surveying. This work ran into logistical complications due to the need to develop lots of infrastructure to study the magnetic properties of rocks. This work progressed, but stalled due to students moving on to other research projects. I am leaving this line of inquiry open until an interested student picks up the project.

Identifying and reducing the source of the Zipper Effect, USA, New York, Ithaca.                      2004-Present

My bidirectional (going north on one line and south on the next) magnetic surveys always have a positional error that shifts data north and south on every other line resulting in linear features that look like zipper teeth. We see this error in other researchers data. I've had students examining the source of this positional error. There are many possible sources for this error and it is taking time to eliminate potential sources. I think that we are getting close.

Gila Encantada Pithouse Village Site, USA, NM, Silver City.                                                2004

Cesium magnetometer studies at Gila Encantada site, a Late Pithouse (A.D. 550 Ç 1000) period site located in southwestern New Mexico in a region classified by archaeologists as the Mimbres Mogollon culture area. These studies intend to gain a better understanding of the magnetic geophysical signature left by the occupants of the site, and improve methods of gathering and interpreting these data. Additionally, the results of the magnetometer survey will help guide archaeological excavations to be conducted by Dr. Barb Roth (Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas).

Sterling Forest State Park Longitudinal Wildlife Study Project, USA, New York, Sterling Forest.                  2004

Establised two 500 m x 600 m Main Study Site and Control Study Site longitudinal population census survey quadrangles (a Main Study Site and a Control Study Site) in Sterling Forest State Park, New York using laser survey techniques to mark every 100 m interval within each site.

Atmospheric Correction Factor Study. USA, New York, Ithaca.                                                         2003

Study to determine the error associated with not doing a PPM correction (Atmospheric Correction Factory Study) while using a total station. Archaeologists I've encountered frequently do not know that you must do a PPM correction and over short distances this may not have consequences. This study intends to quantify the limits of not doing a PPM correction. The student who started this project did not complete it and the project is on hold until another student picks it up.

Willamette Valley Peat Project. USA, Oregon, Woodburn.                                                   2003

This ultra high resolution cesium magnetometer study was conducted at two sites near Woodburn, Oregon; the North Marion 6 Site and the Ledbetter Site. The goal of the surveys was to determine if cesium magnetometer surveys can identify peat deposit boundaries and locations.

Bridge Maintenance Shop Site. USA, Oregon, Bridge.                                                      2001

Dyea Klondike Gold Rush Town Site. USA, Alaska, Dyea.                                                   2001

Corvallis Historic Water Front. USA, Oregon, Corvallis.                                                     2001

Tile Line Management Project. USA, Oregon, Shedd.                                                      2001

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. USA, Oregon, .                                                     2001

North Willamette Research and Extension Center. USA, Oregon, Aurora.                                      2000

Oregon State University Diary Infiltration Project. USA, Oregon, Corvallis (my Ph.D. project)                 2000-2003

James Cassidy and I (with occasional help from Maria Dragila and Daniel Moreno) conducted ground-penetrating radar and cesium magnetometer surveys at the OSU research dairy to locate subsurface features. On May 11, 1999 Oregon State University received notice from the Oregon Department of Agriculture of excessive levels of E. coli in Oak Creek. Spraying liquid manure on OSU research diary fields is a strong candidate for the source, but the method of transport of manure from the fields to the creek remains elusive. During summer 2000, cesium magnetometers in vertical gradient mode successfully identified subsurface pipes and features. A cesium gradiometer records the magnitude of the local earth's magnetic field to an accuracy of 0.1 nanotesla while taking a reading every tenth of a second. A high-resolution survey of portions of the dairy identified the magnetic signature of ceramic drain tiles, metal pipes, and other features that do not appear in historic documents. Future surveys will explore the extent and relationship of these sub-surface features, and identify their potential role in transporting manure from the dairy fields to Oak Creek.

Clonmacnoise Monastery Bridge Site. IRELAND, Co. Offaly, Clonmacnoise and Reyfad Mound. Northern Ireland, Co. Fermanagh, Reyfad.                                  1999

Terry Canyon Village Site. USA, New Mexico, Mimbres                                                    1999

Toledo Turntable Site, USA, Oregon, Toledo.                                                            1998

Big Ass Sail Art Site, Corvallis, Oregon                                                            1998

This project hypothesizes that the use of multiple ground-based remote sens- ing methods can collectively characterize the geophysical signatures of four marked human burials at the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians historic period ceme- tery. If the geophysical signatures of the marked burials can be characterized, these signatures may be used to located unmarked burials within the Siletz cemetery. To investigate this hypothesis, several research questions focused on the results from topographic, cesium gradiometer, and ground-penetrating radar surveys. A 15m 15m region of the cemetery containing four marked burials de nes the survey region. The results of each survey were individually and collectively examined to identify the characteristic geophysical signatures of the four marked burials.

The topographic and magnetic surveys identi ed geophysical anomalies spatial sociated with the some of the marked burials. The ground-penetrating radar su was the most productive by identifying geophysical anomalies spatially assoc with all four marked burials. Even though signals from the burials appeared mixed results, it proved diêcult to characterize the geophysical signatures o burials in the individual and collective geophysical data. Without a characteriz of the geophysical signature of the marked burials, it is diêcult to identify unma burials at the Siletz cemetery. Due to the success of the radar at \seeing" all marked burials it may be possible to identify areas free of unmarked burials.

This project to located unma