New Global Perspectives on Archaeological Prospection

James Bonsall uses geophysical and remote sensing technology to investigate ancient people and landscapes. James is particularly interested in challenging upland and coastal environments that require technical expertise combined with novel methodological approaches to enhance the interpretation of past environments. James has twenty years of archaeological geophysical experience acquired in the commercial and academic sectors. His PhD, a fellowship from the National Roads Authority, focused on aspects of prospecting driven by legacy data collected during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom. James is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the Institute of Technology Sligo. His recent publications include a geoarchaeological study of shell middens on the west coast of Ireland; mapping pauper burials in the UK; and the challenges of surveying remote upland sites in Ireland and Italy.

• The 13th ICAP and the Importance of Archaeological Prospection in Ireland (James Bonsall)13th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection: Organisation Committee13th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection: Scientific CommitteePart One – Archaeological Prospection in EuropeHarbours from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: a Geophysical Panorama (Wolfgang Rabbel, Dennis Wilken, Tina Wunderlich, Annika Fediuk, Michaela Schwardt, Daniel Köhn, Clemens Mohr, SPP 1630 Working Groups)High-resolution underwater archaeological prospection of Upper Austrian pile dwellings and lakes using multi-beam and sediment sonar (Immo Trinks, Wolfgang Neubauer, Timothy Taylor, Mario Wallner, Klaus Löcker, Jutta Leskovar)Ground-penetrating radar study of the Asaviec 2 archaeological site, Belarus (Alina Tšugai-Tsyrulnikova, Jüri Plado, Maxim Charniauski, Irina Khrustaleva, Aivar Kriiska)The Challenge of Urban Archaeological Geophysics: the Example of Grand’Place in Brussels, Belgium(Michel Dabas, François Blary, Gianluca Catanzariti, Paulo Charruadas, Sébastien Flageul, Benjamin VanNieuwenhoeve, Philippe Sosnowska, Alain Tabbagh)The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Data): 100-year Discussion over Roman Fort in Herzegovina solved with shards of information (Michal Pisz, Tomasz Dziurdzik)Geophysical surveys of Eneolithic ditch enclosures in central Bohemia (Roman Křivánek)The application of the geophysical method in forested highland terrains of Bohemia (Roman Křivánek)Non-destructive survey of early medieval ramparts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Peter Milo, Igor Murín, Michaela Prišťáková, Tomáš Tencer, Michal Vágner)Looking for military remains of the Battle of Gergovia: Benefits of a towed multi-frequency EMI survey (François-Xavier Simon, Guillaume Hulin, Yann Deberge, Marion Dacko)First 3D reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment at the Mesolithic site of Duvensee, Germany, using geophysics and geoarchaeology (Erica Corradini, Dennis Wilken, Marco Zanon, Daniel Groß , Harald Lübke, Diana Panning, Katharina Rusch, Rebekka Mecking, Ercan Erkul, Natalie Pickartz, Ingo Feeser, Wolfgang Rabbel)Interaction of geophysical prospection, archaeological excavation and historical sources to reconstruct a medieval monastery in Southern Bavaria (Roland Linck, Florian Becker, Mario Hölzl)The sunken trade centre of Rungholt – Geophysical investigations in the German North Frisian Wadden Sea (Michaela Schwardt, Dennis Wilken, Hanna Hadler, Annika Fediuk, Tina Wunderlich, Andreas Vött, Wolfgang Rabbel)3-D Resistivity Imaging of Rock-Cut Chamber Tombs: the case of the Mycenaean Cemetery in Prosilio, Greece (Nikos Papadopoulos, Dimitris Oikonomou, Gianluca Cantoro, Nikos Andronikidis, Apostolos Sarris)Manifestation of the urban design of ancient cities in northern Greece by archaeological prospection (Gregory N. Tsokas, Panagiotis Tsourlos, George Vargemezis)Ground-Penetrating radar (GPR) for non-destructive testing of monument walls (Gregory Tsokas, Nectaria Diamanti, Dimitrios Angelis, Panagiotis Tsourlos, George Vargemezis)From Roman Villas to 19th century gardens: case studies of geophysical surveys for built heritage in Hungary (László Nagy)Hidden Depths and Empty Spaces: the contribution of archaeological prospection to the study of early medieval Ireland (Susan Curran)Visualizing the Village: A Comparative Assessment of Remote Sensing Methods on Inishark, Co. Galway, Ireland (Sean Field, Ian Kuijt)Unusual monuments, Unusual molecules: geochemical processes at work in County Limerick, Ireland (Heather Gimson, Cian Hogan, Ursula Garner)Newgrange, New Monuments and New Perspectives (Joanna Leigh, Geraldine Stout, Matthew Stout)Microgravimetry for cavity detection–an example from pilot measurements on Newgrange passage tomb (Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site, Ireland) (Roman Pasteka, Pavol Zahorec, Juraj Papco, Conor Brady, Kevin Barton)When the Norsemen return: Complementary GPR surveys at the Viking Age site of Woodstown, County Waterford, Ireland (Petra Schneidhofer)Revisiting the Segesta and the Monreale Survey Sites - The Benefits and Possibilities of Digitising Analog Archaeological Spatial Data (Doris Jetzinger, Christopher Sevara)Integrating geophysical and geoarchaeological surveys for the reconstruction of a Roman Port infrastructure: the Claudian Harbour at Portus (Stephen Kay, Elena Pomar, Simon Keay, Kristian Strutt, Stoil Chapkanski, Jean-Philippe Goiran)Extensive Geophysical Investigations to study the Archaeological Site of Norba (Norma, Central Italy) (Salvatore Piro, Stefania Quilici Gigli, Enrico Papale, Daniela Zamuner)Innovating Archaeological Investigations in Mediterranean Landscapes: Contributions from the Prospecting Boundaries Project (Christopher Sevara, Michael Doneus, Erich Draganits, Roderick B. Salisbury, Cipriano Frazzetta, Doris Jetzinger, Sheba-Celina Schilk, Sebastiano Tusa)Looking for Etruscan harbours: geophysical survey of the ancient site of Pyrgi (Quentin Vitale, Christophe Benech, Jean-Philippe Goiran)Investigating a tumulus in the Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia – Applying multiple noninvasive prospection methods on a World Heritage Site (Mario Wallner, Immo Trinks, Ingrid Schlögel, Alois Hinterleitner, Hannes Schiel, Tanja Trausmuth, FabioColivicchi, Maurizio Forte, Wolfgang Neubauer)Prospecting Mesolithic buried landscapes and sites. Two case studies from two different types of landscapes in the southern Netherlands (Eelco Rensink)"Where animals were equal to humans". Surprising results of complementary geophysical survey on gallows in Lower Silesia (Poland) (Michal Pisz, Magdalena Majorek, Bartosz Świątkowski, Daniel Wojtucki, Karolina Wojtucka, Krzysztof Narloch)Back to the roots. Remote sensing techniques for rediscovering the Chalcolithic eponymous settlement of Cucuteni culture, Romania (Andrei Asandulesei, Felix-Adrian Tencariu, Radu-Ștefan Balaur, Mihaela Asandulesei)Understanding the Anomaly: Multi-Method Geoscientific Research Applied on a Roman Fort in Pojejena (Michal Pisz, Radoslaw Mieszkowski, Emil Jęczmienowski)Geophysical and archaeological research of the baroque church of Saint Nicolas in Kovarce, Slovakia (Mário Bielich, Ján Tirpák)Outlining the karst: ERT and GPR surveys to detect karstic morphologies in the Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Burgos, Spain) (Lucía Bermejo Albarrán, Ana Isabel Ortega, Roger Guérin, Lawrence Conyers, Josep M. Parés, Isidoro Campaña, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell)Archaeological feedback of a GPR survey at Labeagako Santa Maria (Navarre): confirmation of survey interpretation and few more surprises (Ekhine Garcia-Garcia, Roger Sala, Alexandre Duró, Helena Ortiz-Quintana, Rosario Mateo, Javier Nuin)Multi method investigation of submerged features at Semblister, Shetland (Claire Christie, Michael Stratiagos, Benjamin Jennings)The Archaeology of 20th Century Sports and Leisure: topophilia, interiography and texture (Chris Gaffney, Tom Sparrow, Alex Corkum, Helen McCreary, Chrys Harris, Jason Wood)A New Look at Old County Number Records: Geophysical Reassessment of Scheduled Roman Villas (Neil Linford, Paul Linford, Andrew Payne)The influence of buried archaeology on equine locomotion: results from the Burghley Horse trials cross country course (Neil Linford, Russell Mackechnie-Guire)When finding nothing is interesting (Kris Lockyear)Co-creation and archaeological prospection: LoCATE – The Local Community Archaeological Training and Equipment Project (Kate Welham, James Brown, Paul Cheetham, Mike Gill, Lawrence Shaw)Part Two – Archaeological Prospection in AfricaOld Plans versus Geophysical Surveys: the case study of Gurob (Fayum, Egypt) (Lionel Darras, Tomasz Herbich, Marine Yoyotte)Geophysical surveying in Egypt and Sudan: periodical report for 2017–2018 (Tomasz Herbich, Robert Ryndziewicz)3-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography in an Urban Environment: the case of Shallalat Gardens, Alexandria, Egypt (Nikos Papadopoulos, Dimitris Oikonomou, Nasos Argyriou, George Kritikakis, Calliope Limneos Papakosta)Going back to Medamud: Excavation feedback on processing, interpretation and planning (Julien Thiesson, Félix Relats Montserrat)Magnetic prospection close to the magnetic equator: Case studies in the Tigray plateau of Aksum and Yeha, Ethiopia (Sandra Ostner, Jörg W.E. Fassbinder, Mandana Parsi, Iris Gerlach, Sarah Japp)Surveying Kushite sites in Sudan: town and cemetery in Kawa (Tomasz Herbich, Robert Ryndziewicz)Archaeo–geophysical prospection of forts in the North Omdurman (Sudan) (Robert Ryndziewicz, Mariusz Drzewiecki)Part Three – Archaeological Prospection in AsiaMagnetic signal prospecting in a former Achaemenid ‘palace’: the example of Gumbati (Georgia) (Julien Thiesson, Sébastien Gondet, Jörg W.E. Fassbinder, Florian Becker, Marion Scheiblecker, Sandra Ostner, Mandana Parsi, Solène Bourgeois Espèron, Kai Kaniuth)Venice in the desert: Archaeological geophysics on the world’s oldest metropolis Uruk-Warka, the city of King Gilgamesh (Iraq) (Jörg Fassbinder, Sandra Ostner, Marion Scheiblecker, Mandana Parsi, Margarete van Ess)Ancient Charax Spasinou (Iraq) – Interpreting a multi-phase city based on magnetometer survey data (Lena Lambers, Jörg Faßbinder, Stuart Campbell, Stefan Hauser)Revealing the Hidden Structure of the Ancient City Ur (Iraq) with Electrical Resistivity Tomography (Mandana Parsi, Jörg Fassbinder, Nikos Papadopoulos, Marion Scheiblecker, Sandra Ostner)Geophysical survey of single phase archaeological sites: Magnetometry in Wadi Shamlu, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq (Marion Scheiblecker, Simone Mühl, Jörg Faßbinder)Conclusions from Twenty Years of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) Surveys in Israel for Archaeological Prospection (Paul Bauman, Alastair McClymont, Eric Johnson, Richard Freund, Randy Shinduke)Restoring burial mounds damaged by disasters — Contribution of archaeological prospection to collect information at the Idera burial mound, Japan (Akihiro Kaneda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi)UAV-based Airborne Laser Scanning in densely vegetated areas: Detecting Sue pottery kilns in Nakadake Sanroku, Japan (Michael Doneus, Maria Shinoto, Irmela Herzog, Naoko Nakamura, Hideyuki Haijima, Tomokazu Ōnishi, Shōhei Kita'ichi, Baoquan Song)Interpreting GPR data from Jaffna Fort, Northern Sri Lanka, using historic maps and new excavations (Armin Schmidt, Prishanta Gunawardhana, Christopher Davis, Duncan Hale, Robin Coningham, P. Pushparatnam, Richie Villis, Mark Woolston-Houshold, Mark Manuel)Common interpretation of induced polarization tomography (IPT) results with other geophysical methods in an archaeological site (Meriç Aziz Berge, Mahmut Göktuğ Drahor, Caner Öztürk, Atilla Ongar)Comparison of excavation results with GPR and magnetic gradiometer surveys at a workshop area in Šapinuwa, Central Anatolia/Turkey (Mahmut Göktuğ Drahor, Caner Öztürk, Meriç Aziz Berge, Aygül Süel, Atilla Ongar, Sedef Ayyıldız, SemihGerçek, Murat Aydın)Archaeological interpretation of the prospection data from Ephesos (Jasmin Scheifinger)Part Four – Archaeological Prospection in AustralasiaMultiple processing and interpretation methods of a complex 3-D GPR dataset: An example from northern Australia (Lawrence Conyers)Urupa - burial grounds - and remote sensing in Aotearoa (New Zealand) (Hans-Dieter Bader)Part Five – Archaeological Prospection in North AmericaVillage Life in the Middle Ohio Valley, USA: Geophysical Survey and Anomaly Testing (Jarrod Burks)Geophysical Evidence for the Timing, Pace, and Complexity of Construction at the Poverty Point World Heritage Site, Louisiana, USA (Michael Hargrave, R. Berle Clay, Diana Greenlee, Rinita Dalan)The Origins of the West Plaza Rise at the Poverty Point World Heritage Site, Louisiana, USA (Rinita Dalan, Diana Greenlee, Michael L. Hargrave, R. Berle Clay, Thurman Allen, George Holley)GPR Investigations in Earthlodges of the Northern Plains, USA (Kenneth L. Kvamme)Part Six – Technical Aspects of Data Acquistion, Analysis, Processing and VisualisationDrone radar: A new survey approach for Archaeological Prospection? (Roland Linck, Alen Kaltak)The limits of a blob: geophysically informed automatic extraction of magnetometer anomalies (Armin Schmidt)Quantification of Daub Masses based on Magnetic Prospection Data (Natalie Pickartz, Robert Hofmann, Stefan Dreibrodt, Knut Rassmann, Liudmyla Shatilo, René Ohlrau, Dennis Wilken, Wolfgang Rabbel)Applying Magnetic Depth Estimation Techniques to Archaeo-geophysics (Jeremy G. Menzer)Modelling the layer between topsoil and subsoil using magnetic prospection data (Alois Hinterleitner, Ralf Totschnig, Klaus Löcker, Hannes Schiel, Bendeguz Tobias)Pathways to prediction: quantifying the impact of soil moisture variations on electric and electromagnetic contrast (Philippe De Smedt, Daan Hanssens)A 3D imaging procedure for subsurface magnetic susceptibility: application to the basaltic foundations of a Gallo-Roman villa in Auvergne, France (Julien Guillemoteau, Francois-Xavier Simon, Bertrand Dousteyssier, Marion Dacko, Guillaume Hulin, JensTronicke)WuMapPy an open-source software for geophysical prospection data processing: 2019 milestone (Quentin Vitale, Lionel Darras, Christophe Benech, Julien Thiesson)Automated segmentation of archaeo-geophysical images by convolutional neural networks (Melda Küçükdemıṙ cı,̇ Apostolos Sarris)Rise of the Machines: Improving the identification of possible graves in GPR data with interactive survey guidance and machine learning (Ashely Green, Paul Cheetham)Automated detection and analysis of diffraction hyperbolas in ground-penetrating radar data (Lieven Verdonck)Novel volume visualisation of GPR data inspired by medical applications (Wolfgang Neubauer, Alexander Bornik, Mario Wallner, Geert Verhoeven)Strategies for the optimization of 3-D electrical resistivity tomography data using the Jacobian matrix (Kleanthis Simyrdanis, Nikos Papadopoulos)Processing Strategies for 3-D Marine Dynamic Electrical Resistivity Tomography Data (Dimitrios Oikonomou, Nikos Papadopoulos, Kleanthis Simyrdanis, Gianluca Cantoro, Julien Beck, Meng Heng Loke)Improving the lithological significance of shear wave tomograms through coring and pressure correction (Dennis Wilken, Wolfgang Rabbel, Tina Wunderlich, Martina Karle)Aerial thermal imaging from UAV in archaeology, a case study: the abandoned medieval town of Montecorvino (Foggia, Italy) (Luca d'Altilia)Multi-spectral, multi-temporal survey in the American Midwest (Helen McCreary, Jarrod Burks, Alex Corkum, Chris Gaffney, Andy Wilson)Evaluating the capability of a SUAS mounted multispectral sensor for the mapping of archaeological resources in an alluvial landscape (Nicholas Crabb, Matthew Brolly, Niall Burnside, Andy Howard, Robin Jackson, Chris Carey)Beneath the Stains of Time: The physiochemical prospection of multiperiod sites in southern Britain - a geophysics approach to geochemistry? (Paul Cheetham)Three-dimensional modelling of petroglyphs of South Siberia (Vladislav Kazakov, Vasily Kovalev, Kair Zhumadilov, Lyudmila Lbova, Aleksandr Simukhin)Part Seven – Improving our Legacy: Reviewing the Key Outcomes of Archaeological Prospection DataIntroducing the ‘Soil science & Archaeo-Geophysics Alliance’ (SAGA): a new interdisciplinary network in archaeo-geophysics (Carmen Cuenca-Garcia, Kayt Armstrong, Apostolos Sarris, Philippe De Smedt, Clare Wilson, Elina Aidona, Anne Roseveare, Martin Roseveare, Petra Schneidhofer, Jörg Faßbinder, Ian Moffat, Marion Scheiblecker, Abir Jrad, Martijn van Leusen, Kelsey Lowe, and SAGA's Management Committee)Laying the geophysical groundwork: in situ measurements as a framework for strategizing archaeological prospection (Philippe De Smedt, Ynse Declercq, Daan Hanssens, Wouter B. Verschoof-van der Vaart, Tom Hamburg, Walter Laan, Pieter Lalloo, Frédéric Cruz, Karsten Lambers)Review strategies for archaeological prospection, incorporating excavation and research (Cian Hogan)Methodological framework to automatically compare large-scale magnetometry measurements with excavation datasets (Gábor Mesterházy)Archaeological guidelines for geophysical survey in the urban environment (Guglielmo Strapazzon, Dimitrios Oikonomou, Evan Alevizos, Kleanthis Simyrdanis, Melda Küçükdemirci,Apostolos Sarris)Addressing archaeological research questions using geophysical surveys – a landscape case study (Jakob Kainz)Up-skilling and Up-scaling: the realities of adapting to the challenges of the current environment in British commercial geophysics (Chrys Harris)