Scientists testing new scanning technology discover mysterious structure beneath an ancient Egyptian city
Archaeologists working in Egypt’s Nile Delta may have discovered a tomb or temple dating back around 2,600 years while testing a new technology designed to locate structures buried deep beneath the surface. The team was studying the Buto (Tell el-Fara’in) site, the ruins of an ancient city that was occupied from the Predynastic period (around 3800 BCE) to the Early Islamic era (7th century CE).
During its long history, Buto was built, destroyed, and rebuilt and consequently has several layers, each potentially a rich source of archaeological remains. However, the oldest parts of the city are now buried beneath later ruins and thick mud deposits. This would make traditional digging difficult, time-consuming, and expensive as archaeologists have to move tons of debris or struggle with groundwater to reach lower levels. The technology helps guide them where to dig.
Peeling back layers of history
The researchers were trialing a multipronged approach that uses satellite radar (SAR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT).
The team started with the Sentinel-1 radar satellite to identify large-scale anomalies from space, as they describe in a paper published in the journal Acta Geophysica. When it detected something of interest, they followed up with ERT. The technology sends electrical currents between a series of electrodes placed in the ground to create a 3D model of subsurface structures based on how different materials conduct/resist electricity. This technique has been likened to an underground CT scan.
In the top three meters, the scans showed a layer of broken pottery and debris from the later Roman and Ptolemaic periods. However, at a depth of between three and six meters, the technology revealed a large, well-defined structure from the Saite period (around 2,600 years ago).
At this stage, the researchers thought it could be a large tomb or shrine. Next, they carried out a small 10 x 10 meter excavation, which uncovered mudbrick walls and religious artifacts where the sensors had predicted.
“The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of combining geophysical measurements and remote sensing data, which gave a very accurate vision in detecting buried settlements in a complex region,” wrote the team in their paper.
“3D inversion algorithms were particularly effective in delineating buried mudbrick walls and architectural structures, significantly enhancing our understanding of site formation processes.”
Next steps
The study authors now plan to expand these surveys with larger equipment to reach even deeper, older levels. And they believe their integrated approach can be used to accurately map other archaeological sites before anyone has to pick up a shovel.
Source: phys.org
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Scientists testing new scanning technology discover mysterious structure beneath an ancient Egyptian city