Prismatica Geotech & Engineering Services Private Limited

Three subsurface testing methods were independently applied to the six test locales to assess their utility for buried site discovery. These methods include, in order of increasing subsurface impact, geophysical survey (remote sensing), coring and augering, and backhoe trenching. Because ground disturbances affect the results of these surveys, the order in which the methods were applied to each test locale followed their relative amount of subsurface disturbance (i.e., remote sensing, followed by coring and augering, and then trenching). Each of the methods used during this study was applied to a predetermined area whose generalized boundaries were established through consultation between the principal geoarchaeologists and archaeologists in the field prior to initiation of the field investigations. The generalized outline of the test locale was initially selected to meet the archaeological and geomorphological testing criteria established for that locale and then marked using a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) instrument (WAAS corrected to achieve <3 m [<9.8 ft] accuracy).