Utilizing Magnetic Gradiometer to Determine the Depth and Geometry of Subsurface Archaeological Features at Abydos Archaeological Site, Sohag, Egypt

Abdelaal, Gamal Zidan; Abbas, Safaa Khalaf; Abudeif, AbdelBaset; Mohammed, Mohammed

doi:10.21608/aunj.2022.140808.1028

Utilizing Magnetic Gradiometer to Determine the Depth and Geometry of Subsurface Archaeological Features at Abydos Archaeological Site, Sohag, Egypt

Document Type : Novel Research Articles

Authors

¹ Faculty of Science, Department of Geology Assiut University.

² Geology Department Faculty of Science Assiut University, Assiut, 71516, Egypt

³ Geology Department Faculty of Science Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt

10.21608/aunj.2022.140808.1028

Abstract

The Abydos archaeological site represents one of the most important burial grounds for kings and high court dignitaries in ancient Egypt which is located at about 13 km west of the River Nile along El-Balyana town at Sohag Governorate, Egypt. High resolution gradiometer survey was conducted on the area surrounding the Osirion at Abydos. The main objective of the present work was to detect depth and geometry of any buried archaeological remains located at the site. The gradiometer survey was acquired on an area of 300 x 300 m using proton precession magnetometer, 10m line spacing and 5m station interval. The collected gradiometer magnetic data was corrected and processed using the Geosoft Oasis Montaj. The interpretation of both the high pass filtered and the analytical signal transformation magnetic maps showed very strong anomalies with square and rectangular shapes concentrated on the central, eastern and western parts of the study area that may represent buried archaeological features. The averaged depth of these high magnetic anomalies ranges from 1.1 to 6.9 m below ground surface as confirmed from the radial average spectrum technique and the calculated depth by source power imaging technique ranges between 1.06 m to 5.58 m. The obtained results indicate that the study area is characterized by several buried archaeological features with very well determined geometry and depth where this information can be used as a guide during the excavation process..

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