From May 25 to May 29, 2015, I attended the National Park Service workshop titled “Current Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in the 21st Century” in Lyons, Kansas. The workshop provided approximately 40 attendees with instruction on the use of non-destructive, geophysical techniques to investigate archaeological sites. Such techniques include: magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, electrical resistance, electromagnetic conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, photogrammetry, aerial photography, and metal detection.
Over the course of the workshop, attendees spent half of each day in the classroom where instructors presented a brief overview of the equipment, taught the science behind how each technique works, and explained the applicability of the techniques in different situations. The second half of each day was spent in the field where attendees learned how to operate the various pieces of equipment while contributing to a non-destructive, geophysical survey of the Tobias-Thompson Complex, a series of American Indian villages visited by Francisco de Coronado in 1541. Each evening, attendees spent two hours in the classroom learning how to process the data that was collected earlier in the field.
Attendance of the workshop was beneficial in several ways. First, I have gained valuable knowledge of equipment and techniques that can produce efficient archaeological research. In the future, I will be able to use non-destructive techniques in my thesis research and as a professional archaeologist. Second, the instructors at the workshop were some of the best non-destructive, geophysical professionals in the world. Some had even come from as far away as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands! I can imagine that the National Park Service workshop is unique because it brings together an amazing collection of extremely knowledgeable instructors into one place. Third, the workshop was a great opportunity to network with archaeologists from federal, state, tribal, and private organizations. While attending the workshop I made many friends that I will continue to interact and exchange ideas