![]() ![]() It measure resistivity of a controlled source of electric current and a device for measuring the potential differences generated by the current passing through the earth. Resistivity surveying is frequently used today in archaeological surveying to detect, for example, walls and ditches, though magnetometry tends to pick up ditches better and is also more suited to spotting metal or burning. The problem is that, at Giza, all of the subterranean mysteries are not manmade. Hence, in their subsequent field season in Egypt during 1977, the SRI team decided to try acoustic sounding, resistivity and magnetometry surveys, though they found that none of these methods, at the time, were particularly foolproof. Hence, the team found GPR to be almost completely useless. While the Giza Plateau sits on the edge of the desert, which would seem to make it ideal for this technology, in reality there is a high humidity level, as well as an underground water table not far below the surface. Furthermore, high moisture content affects the strength of the returning signal, resulting in a loss of radio frequency, which is a real problem at Giza. There are various restraints to the depth at which this technique is functional, including the type of soil and rocks. The signals are then recorded, producing a profile of the subterranean region. ![]() This technique uses a device to transmit waves downward that reflect off the substrata. GPR uses high-frequently radio waves to penetrate below ground level in order to produce an image of the subsurface features. ![]() The SRI International project at first attempted to employ ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as a nondestructive means of archaeological investigation. ![]() Though here, we will explore the projects at Giza, the team also conducted early surveys at Saqqara and in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor (ancient Thebes). The team leaders were Lambert Dolphin, a Senior Physicist with SRI and Ali Helmi Moussa, Chairman of the Department of Physics at Ain Shams. As with the Joint Pyramid Project, the Ain Shams University was a major Egyptian component of the operation, which was teamed up with scientists from SRI and archaeologists from the then Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO), the predecessor of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Their work in Egypt was a continuation of a joint American-Egyptian project established in 1974 to apply modern geophysical techniques to the field of archaeological investigation. SRI International, which was once known as the Stanford Research Institute based in California, is today an independent, nonprofit research institute. In fact, today it is a common means for Egyptologists to explore a prospective site which not only allows for the preservation of excavations, but also saving money by pinpointing dig areas.Īfter the Joint Pyramid Project of the 1960s, during the 1970s, SRI International took up the banner of nondestructive investigation on a variety of projects in Egypt. Therefore, since particularly the 1970s, the use of nondestructive technology has been a necessary means of archaeological investigation, not only on the Giza Plateau, but elsewhere in Egypt. New projects are usually approved only in areas that are threatened, such as the wet delta, because the antiquity authorities would just as soon keep other possible sites buried until they can be properly preserved. In fact, any archaeological investigation in Egypt is now carefully monitored to make sure that its national heritage remains as safe as possible. The day of using dynamite or other tunneling techniques to explore Egyptian monuments is long dead. ![]()
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