DART progress report July 2011

Sensor Arrays and Surveys The past 6 months have represented a major milestone for the project. We have installed both sensor arrays at RAC and one sensor array at Diddington the final array will be installed in late July. The regular monitoring surveys have started. At present the geophysical surveys geotechnical sampling and spectro-radiometry have a monthly baseline interval. Further, two weekly, spectroradiometry surveys are taken at Diddington and will continue until the crop is harvested. In addition we have been in communication with the farmers and will attempt to take specific geophysical measurements to evaluate the impact of ploughing and harrowing on signal attenuation. The experience of doing this work has led to the consolidation of methodology. Aerial Surveys Two local aerial archaeologists, Robert Bewley (Cirencester) and Rog Palmer (Diddington) are undertaking regular flights over both sites. These photographs can be found on the DART website: http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/?page_id=63. On the 27th June 2011 the Environment Agency have undertook a CASI hyperspectral, LiDAR and vertical photograph survey. These are collected at a ground resolution of 1m, 1m and 0.25m respectively. The LiDAR and vertical photography cover approximately 20km2 around each site and the CASI covers approximately 3km2. In addition we put in a bespoke application to NERC s Airborne Remote Sensing Facility for hyperspectral flights after observing the impact that the 1 in 100 years drought event was having on cropmarks at Diddington. This was submitted on Friday 10th June, approved on Monday 13th June and flown on Tuesday 14th June. Many thanks to NERC for this flight. Concurrent spectro-radiometry readings were taken for both the CASE and NERC ARSF flights to compensate for atmospheric effects. NERC, Cambridgeshire County Council and DART will produce a press release on these flights. Workshop On the 27th April the first DART community workshop was held at Leeds University. Given the time of year it was well attended with 30 community participants and the DART team bringing this up to a total of 40 people. We managed to get a good cross-section of academics, curators, practitioners and community groups as can be seen from the delegate breakdown below. The day is summarised in a blog post http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/?p=1253. Partnerships Van Walt Ltd., Allied Associates Geophysical Ltd., Leica Geosystems have all continued to offer support. Van Walt will be installing one of their TDR probes for comparative analysis at the next Diddington installation. Allied Associates have provided geophysical equipment. Leica Geosystems have provided access to both RTK-GPS and their SmartNET service. Many thanks to all these organisations for their support. Future work From here on in DART will become very data intensive. We need to put in place effective back-end infrastructure to host and share large data and to find appropriate mechanisms to place this data in the public domain and present (or visualize) the data. The ARSF grant for 2012 will need submitting in October.

Robert Fry: Geophysics

Preliminary Geophysics at Sites Fluxgate Gradiometer surveys were undertaken at Harnhill and Diddington. These were used at the main location maps for the TDR placement on site. The survey was conducted by RF and DS during January and February, with associated reports written up for the landowners and DART principal investigators. From the successful results of the surveys, coring locations were selected in order to characterise the ditch locations (coring completed by KW). FlashRes64 Resistivity Imaging Equipment The new FlashRes resistivity Imaging Equipment has currently been on loan from Allied Associates, and tested on a number of different sites. I am now confident the instrument works sufficiently and the University of Bradford (UoB) are purchasing the equipment to be used and to constitute the main focus of the monthly surveys and indeed, the PhD. The importance of the high-definition results from the instrument should really help with characterising the seasonal moisture contrasts in the soil. To help disseminate and understand the data further, I am currently attempting to write a Python program which extracts specific arrays from the FlashRes data. EM CMD MiniExplorer equipment After the DART workshop, it was noted that testing Electro Magnetic (EM) survey would be of interest to commercial interested parties. Thanks to Allied Associates again, UoB have been lent a new EM instrument which could revolutionise the use of this method for archaeological prospecting. After successful surveys at Quarry Field (Harnhill) it is hoped that a future lending program might be arranged to collect more EM data over the fields. Excavation and Installation After successfully locating the sites through geophysical survey and coring, 3 TDR boxes at Cirencester and 1 at Diddington have been installed. Soil samples taken from all fields. Publications / Dissemination y AARG News: DART students AARG conference summary y ISAP News: The DART project a roadmap for the 21st century y RSPSoc News: DART project update y ISAP Conference: FlashRes64 - extended abstract and DART project extended abstract Future work I am about to start undertaking the monthly survey of the fields. This will generally be in the last week of the selected month (where logistically viable) and will involve, survey with a multiplexed resistance meter (at Twin probe spacings of 0.25m / 0.5m / 0.75m and 1m), the FlashRes ERI system, as well as EM survey when available. (Dan will also be providing GPR data from each site each month). Foreseeable issues Not so much an issue yet, but I am currently attempting to work out how to correctly and effectively compare and analyse the data I collect.

Dan Boddice and Laura Pring: Geotechnics

TDR installation The three TDR monitoring stations at the RAC (two in quarryfields, one in cherry copse) have been activated, and have been collecting data since May. Large scale analysis of this data in its entirety is currently impossible, as each waveform takes a considerable amount of time to locate the start and end reflection points. However, a small sample of the data has been analysed, to check viability, the results of which were positive. After the final installations have been completed, a script to automatically locate the reflection points will be developed. This will dramatically improve analysis time. TDR logging issues Some outstanding issues exist with the data collection, with the principle problem being that the CF cards used to store the data are filling up at a much quicker rate than expected (around 2 weeks). Contact has been made with Campbell scientific on this issue, and they are currently investigating. The latest thinking is that the table fill times being reported by loggernet are not accurate and running a program in the lab may help us to determine accurate table fill times. Investigations into uploading the data to an ftp server using the GSM modems are also being conducted, as this would produce a pseudo-live data feed, from which any problems or data skips could quickly be identified, and reduce the CF cards role to backup. Weather station installation Three weather stations have currently been installed, two at the RAC and another at the pasture field at Diddington. A final station will be installed at Diddington in July. All three of these have been observed to be collecting and recording data at regular intervals appropriately. Weather logging issues Some of the measurements are not fully explained by the software or manual, and we are currently in contact with Prodata (who sold us the weather stations) and Davis (the manufacturer) to obtain information on how some of the derived measurements such as rain rate are calculated, in order to better understand the data and use it more effectively. Future work In the forthcoming months of the project, we will be undertaking a number of different activities
y y y y y

Solve the data issues mentioned above on the TDR sensors Finish and install the remaining two sensors at the clay site at Diddington Develop a script to computer analyse the waveforms from the TDR to process the data quickly Source a vibracorer and develop a methodology on frequency and locations for coring Begin geotechnical laboratory tests on the soil samples from the two sites

David Stott: Spectral analyses

Spectro-radiometry survey Since the last meeting we have recorded three spectro-radiometry transects at Diddington on a two week interval. Diddington has become the focus for this work as it has had both EAGLE, HAWK and CASI hyperspectral (pre and post a rain event), it is also logistically easier to get to Diddington from Leeds. This is essential as we are weather dependant. The methodology for this work has been refined to enable the lab work to be conducted at or near site using a portable enclosure and sun emulating lamps. This reduces the risk that the vegetation samples will degrade after being taken, and reduces dependency on the weather for field measurements. Vegetation height and relative chlorophyll content are also recorded for each spectro-radiometry transect.
In addition to the site work additional spectro-radiometry reading are being recorded of the wheat plants being subjected to lab based stress testing in Leeds (Plant Biology).

Excavation and Probe installation The excavations provided a detailed understanding of the nature of the three features identified so far. These are:
y y y

A relict field boundary and drain in clay (Quarry Field at Harnhill) A substantial relict field boundary cut into limestone bedrock (Cherry Copse at Harnhill) A prehistoric ditch in gravel, sealed by an alluvial deposit (the pasture field at Diddington)

That these features are all so different is encouraging, as they will surely provide a wide range of responses to changing conditions.

The monthly surveys The monthly surveys began in the last week of June 2011. During these the spectro-radiometry and geophysical data will be co-collected. The first survey provided valuable insights as to how we can work together most efficiently. Aerial data Ground-based spectro-radiometry readings were co-collected during the NERC and Environment Agency hyperspectral flights. This will allow us to correct for atmospheric attenuation. The oblique aerial photography provided by Bob Bewley and Rog Palmer have provided valuable info rmation regarding the location of archaeological features that can be targeted for further spectro-radiometry transects next year. Further work y Continuing the spectro-radiometry surveys until the harvest this year (mid-August) y Locating further transects for the growing season in 2012. This will involve working closely with the land-owners to locate transects in areas of different crop and cultivation regimes y Designing a data structure for interrogating the data y Correction and exploration of the aerial data y Writing the NERC Airborne Remote Sensing Facility grant for the 2012 season