GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE MOUND CITY BORROW PITS IN ROSS COUNTY, OHIO

Geophysical subsurface imaging is becoming a common practice in archaeology today. Non-invasive geophysical methods provide efficient alternatives to costly and invasive excavations, allowing archaeologists to analyze sites beforehand and to identify areas of interest. Most importantly, geophysical surveying has proven to be very effective in locating prehistoric and historic features. Less attention has been paid to the ability of geophysics to help archaeologists examine the stratigraphy of prehistoric earthworks. This expansion of archaeo-geophysics would help answer questions such as earthwork construction techniques and the geomorphology of sites, further reducing the need for invasive digging.

For this research, we are analyzing two borrow pits located at the Mound City Group in Ross County, Ohio using five different geophysical methods. These methods include ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistance and conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, and magnetometry. This data will be ground-truthed using soil coring and trenches to identify the geophysical anomalies, providing us with a method of interpreting stratigraphy through geophysical data analysis.