Experience of ground penetrating radar (GPR) studies on Avdeevo Paleolithic site, Kursk region, Russia
The Late-Paleolithic site of Avdeevo belongs to the Kostenki-Avdeevo archaeological culture. The studies here are carried out since 1940, however, geophysical methods were never used. The article describes the results of using modern geophysical method - ground penetrating radar (GPR) - for studies on inundated terrace, where Avdeevo Paleolithic site is situated. GPR refers to electromagnetic geophysical methods that analyze the response of the medium to the radiated electromagnetic field. It allows for non-destructive investigations of the medium, which is extremely important when works take place at an archaeological site. We used GPR systems: OKO-2 (“LOGIS-GEOTECH, Russia”) and Zond-12e (“Radar Systems”, Latvia). We made the classic GPR profiling along the lines, drawn previously to mark the most interesting areas of the site. To determine the actual velocity of electromagnetic waves in the test medium, we have performed a series of experiments on the natural modeling. For the accurate topographic control of GPR data we used the tacheometer Leica TPS-1200. We generated a digital elevation model for the site with 20 cm resolution. We demonstrated that it is possible to obtain information about inner structure of terrace from GPR profiles if the preliminary study of geological data (cross-sections, boreholes, etc) is conducted. The GPR also allows estimating the anthropogenic impact of modern humans on Avdeevo areas: with the help of GPR we can define the boundaries of old excavations. Considering that labor during GPR studies costs much less than during archaeological excavations, the GPR not only can, but must be introduced into the practice of archaeological work.