Discovered but not Uncovered - Mediaeval Old Sarum

[Patrick Waterson]

The University of Southampton has used a combination of magnetometry, earth resistance, ground penetrating radar and electric resistivity tomography to map the city buildings of 11th century AD Old Sarum.  The resultant scan is visible here, together with a nice aerial view of the site.

[Imperial Dave]

thanks for the link Patrick. Very interesting results, I was surprised to see just how extensive the amount of buildings there were in the medieval part of the site. As an aside, well worth a visit for those that havent already been! 

[Sharur]

This does though rather assume that the interpretation of the geophysical results is correct. Odd they seemed not to have dug even a few test-pits to confirm the data. Anyone who's ever watched "Time Team" knows how "accurate" geophys results alone can be, after all 

[Patrick Waterson]

Alastair puts his finger exactly on what is going to be the problem with geophysical data until a number of 'side-by-side' excavations have been completed, with geophysical data predicting what is there, excavation confirming or correcting, and geophysical readings recalibrated accordingly.  Once that kind of confirmed database exists, confidence in the results can be much higher.

For the average person and the present, it is perhaps enough to know that mediaeval Old Sarum seems to have had more buildings than previously thought.  For the future scholar of the period, rather more exacting data will be not only desirable but essential.

Still, it is nice to see progress in the field of geophysical mapping.

[Imperial Dave]

Still, it is nice to see progress in the field of geophysical mapping.