THE URBAN SURVEY

Seeing Beneath the Surface
Geophysical survey methods make it possible to image buried cultural and natural features. Since the first season in 1993, a fortuitous combination of geological and archaeological circumstances at Kerkenes has permitted the mapping of considerable portions of the ancient city with exceptional clarity using a variety of techniques. In May the electrical resistance survey was continued (Figs 3 and 4). Once again a Geoscan RM15 machine was used with a sample density of two readings per metre at half a metre traverse intervals. There were two new initiatives.
The first initiative was to survey a 60m wide strip (Figs 3 and 8) running steeply down from just inside the city defences on the northeast side to the lower central portion of the city where trials over difficult terrain had produced good results. This strip joined with the large part of the central area that had been surveyed in previous seasons. The purpose was to sample cultural remains across a variety of geological, geomorphological and hydrological situations on steep urban landscape. Both the width, three 20 by 20m grids, and the line were selected so as to avoid, in as far as was practicable, rock outcrops and unduly wet areas. It was possible to confirm earlier observations that even the steep slopes had been modified by terracing for the construction of buildings, and rewarding to be able to identify many individual building. These results, which are of interest in themselves because they sample a variety of Iron Age structures and urban compounds together with putative elements in a system of water management, will be of great help in the forward planning of resistivity survey over future years.