Abstract
Geophysical survey has been integral to the archaeological research strategy of the Lower Amazon Project in Brazil from 1983 until the present. In our project, the systematic integration of multiple-instrument geophysical survey with traditional archaeological approaches in three-stage, problem-oriented research has produced unprecedented information about the organization of prehistoric Amazonian societies, their history, and their ecological adaptations. In our results, there was a consistent correlation of the geophysical anomaly patterns from survey with the patterning of stratigraphy and distribution of objects in the sites, as determined by excavation. This correlation between survey and excavation results has allowed us to map theoretically important aspects of the structure and composition of the archaeological sites in advance of excavation. The resulting information about the nature of the human occupation of the tropical rainforest has changed theoretical understanding of human history in the New World. In this article I explain why and how geophysical methods have been used in the project, illustrate the explanation with three case studies, and assess the potential of the methods for archaeology in the future.
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Roosevelt, A. (2006). Geophysical Archaeology in the Lower Amazon: A Research Strategy. In: Wiseman, J., El-Baz, F. (eds) Remote Sensing in Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Contributions To Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-44455-6_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-44455-6_18
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