International Conference on GPR in Archaeology (Nara, February 2001)

Archaeological GPR Survey at Burial Unmounded Area in Pubchonni Wonjoo, KOREA

Hyundok Oh

This GPR survey was executed before the second excavation at the area of burial unmounded groups in Pubchonni Wonjoo, Korea , Apr. 2000. The first excavation was made at the southern part of the survey area in 1999, and archaeological features were between 0.5m to 1.5m below the surface.

The purpose of this survey was to detect the location and the size of tombs and other important archaeological features.

Pubchonni is located in the joint of the Nam Han river and the Som river. The soil is sand and it is very homogeneous. The ground level of the survey area is about 7m high from the surface of the river. Thus Water table could be under the features.

Those conditions were very good to survey. It was able to be notified some tombs and archaeological features.

The reflected signals were so strong that It derived my and a local archaeologist's thought it might be Stone Built Mounds (a kind of cairn) considering there size and depth. However after excavation, We realized that they were just accumulated stones in holes.

In summary, even though It could not be distinguished whether they were real tombs or not, GPR survey is very effective to estimate some archaeological features(location, depth, size and general structures) with vertical profile and time slice.

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