HR: 0830h
AN: NS41A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: GPR Experience at Mesoamerican Archaeological Sites in Honduras: Puerto Escondido and Copan
AU: * Tchakirides, T F
EM: tft5@cornell.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University 3120 Snee Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Brown, L D
EM: brown@geology.cornell.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University 3120 Snee Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Henderson, J S
EM: jsh6@cornell.edu
AF: Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AB: A series of preliminary GPR surveys were conducted during the summer of 2000 at an Early-Middle Formative Mesoamerican archeological site at Puerto Escondido near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and at the Classic Mayan site of Copan. Both studies were carried out using a Sensors and Software Pulse EKKO 100, equipped with 50, 100 and 200 MHz antennae. Most of the data were collected at 200 Hz on both reconnaissance profiles and 2D grids. Soils at the Puerto Escondido site were dominantly fluvial sediments associated with the Sula River. Likewise, most of the surveys at Copan were probing fluvial deposits of the Copan River. Penetration was generally limited at both sites to about 1 meter. The terrain at the Puerto Escondido site was generally flat and open, with no tree cover. Surveys at the Copan site were largely beneath tree cover with attendant problems of canopy backscatter. Three-dimensional surveys from the Puerto Escondido site were successful in detecting a stone wall and firepit that were confirmed by subsequent archaeological excavations, as well as similar features that have not yet been excavated. Surveys at Copan sampled a variety of landscape features, including the top of a major monumental structure. Interpretation of the 2D data was seriously compromised by what is interpreted as sidescatter from overhead tree canopies and lateral root systems. Three-dimensional data, however, were successful in delineating the internal structure of a road system (sacbe) linking Copan to the nearby satellite center of Sepulturas. Together these results indicate that GPR can be useful in delineating near surface archeological features in the fluvial sediments that dominate at these Honduras sites, but that 3D coverage is needed to discriminate buried archeological features in the presence of dense forest cover.
DE: 0600 ELECTROMAGNETICS
DE: 9350 North America
SC: Near-Surface Geophysics [NS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly