Electrical Resistivity Tomography Investigations of MultiLayered Archaeological Settlements: Part I - Modelling

ABSTRACT In archaeology, multilayered settlements (höyük, tell, tepe) are among the most important sites for investigation and excavation. This type of site is a subcircular, nucleated settlement composed of mud‐ and stone‐based materials remaining from different archaeological times; it presents a complex archaeological context. This study tests the capability of the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method by simulation of multilayered archaeological settlements. This study also discusses the usefulness of the data acquisition and inversion facilities of ERT surveys to define buried structures and settlement plans of various archaeological layers of the settlements. A robust inversion technique was performed during the modelling studies in which the forward solution of the objective function (Poisson equation) was solved using the finite‐element approach. The ERT results reveal that a 'semi‐fully three‐dimensional' investigation provides more accurate solutions than 'quasi‐three‐dimensional' applications. According to the inversion results, dipole–dipole and pole–dipole arrays describe the model better than Wenner, Wenner–Schlumberger and pole–pole arrays. The effects of interelectrode and interline spacing, as well as line orientation, were also investigated during the modelling studies. Based on the modelling approach, a reasonable field and inversion strategy for ERT studies of the multilayered settlements is suggested. We conclude that ERT is a highly suitable technique for the determination of settlements that have layered stratigraphy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.