Michael "Bodhi" Rogers, assistant professor of physics, and Jack Rossen, associate professor of anthropology, have been awarded $188,071 from the National Science Foundation to purchase a suite of geophysics instruments and soil sampling and analysis tools. Ithaca College is now one of a handful of locations in the United States that has all of these instruments in one laboratory.
Instruments already at Ithaca College are a Geometrics Cesium Gradiometer, a Sokkia Total Station, and a GSSI SIR-3000 ground-penetrating radar unit. Bodhi now needs to find space in his lab for the following:
Bartington MS2 Magnetic Susceptibility meters
Geometrics OhmMapper TR5 Resistivity meter
Geonics EM31 conductivity meter
Geoscan FM256 Dual Fluxgate magnetometer system
Geoscan RM15 Resistance Meter
Geosoft Oasis Montaj analysis software
Golden Software’s Surfer mapping program (5 copies)
Field Computers: Two Dell Latitude D610 0
JMC Soil Sampling Instruments
Agilent 8453 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer w/ Automated Sipper System and software
ABSTRACT OF THE AWARD: This award provides funds to permit Ithaca College to acquire a suite of ground-based remote sensing (GBRS) instruments, soil sampling tools, and analysis software. GBRS instruments (ground-penetrating radar, resistivity, magnetometry, magnetic susceptibility, and conductivity) record the geophysical properties of the soils and subsurface objects. Each of these non-invasive methods record different physical parameters and each method’s effectiveness depends upon the properties of the materials being studied. The goal of using these methods is to obtain a view into the subsurface prior to or without excavating, and the use of multiple instruments can enhance one’s view into the subsurface. GBRS surveys record information about geophysical parameters, but more important, these surveys are recording the geophysical signals related to human interaction with the landscape by identifying subsurface house locations, activity areas, drainage systems, burials, and trash piles.
The Ithaca College anthropology and physics departments and Cornell University anthropology and landscape architecture departments are collaborating to better understand Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) settlement patterns and improving the effectiveness of archaeological geophysical techniques. The Finger Lakes region of New York State provides a rich environment for answering anthropological questions about the Haudenosaunee. Although site locations are well documented, very little is known about settlement patterns and transitions in settlement patterns before and during interaction with European settlers. The 1779 Sullivan Campaign that destroyed Cayuga and Seneca villages along both sides of Cayuga Lake dispersed members of these nations, making it difficult to reconstruct settlement patterns and social and economic networks. To gain an understanding of community patterning, one must look at sites across the entire region, making the use of GBRS techniques especially critical due to covering much larger areas in shorter times than traditional archaeological methods while still retaining high-resolution sampling.
Acquisition of instruments supported by this award will also allow for the creation of an Ithaca College Methods in Applied Geophysics summer field school and weekend-long professional workshops. IC is centrally located among a large number of institutions of higher education (Binghamton University; Colgate University; Cornell University; Hobart & William Smith Colleges; the State University of New York at Cortland, Geneseo, and Oswego; Syracuse University; Rochester Institute of Technology; University of Rochester; and Wells College), and in a region of rich historic and archaeological interest, but there is no regional GBRS field school. There is little experience with archaeological geophysical methods in the region, including sites under the control of the National Forest Service, National Park Service, and State Parks.
Some other regions of the United States and European investigators are currently well ahead of their colleagues in the northeastern United States in the use of remote sensing and related tools. The summer field school and weekend workshops made possible by the acquisition of the instruments supported by this award will educate current cultural resource management professionals and the next generation of archaeologists on how to successfully use the most modern instruments for non-invasively imaging below ground.
