Archaeological geophysical investigation of Uzun Rama Steppe kurgans, Goranboy

Abstract

Geophysical methods can provide valuable information when imaging man-made subsurface structures prior to archaeological excavations. An archaeological geophysical survey was conducted on funeral chambers (also known as kurgans) from the Early Bronze Age, in the Shadili-Uzun Rama Steppe of the Goranboy region, near the Kurakchay river gorge in Azerbaijan. This multimethod survey is based on a ground-penetrating radar profile, heat map of the total magnetic intensity, and contiguous profiles of electrical resistivity and seismic refraction. Brief processing and default inversion methods enabled us to obtain geophysical images in accordance with the lithology (a subsoil comprised of alluvial-proluvial conglomerate terrasse). The shape of the kurgans was recovered mainly through electrical resistivity tomography, enabling future targeted excavations. Overall, this study further testifies that geophysics provides valuable information for archaeological investigations, although higher resolution could be achieved by using more advanced field methodology and processing.