Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Many shallow subsurface objects in the archaeological site can be quickly investigated by magnetic survey, and the results can provide useful information for the excavation. We applied magnetic survey both with total magnetic intensity measurement and with vertical gradiometry to archaeological investigation to locate possible archaeological remains at the site presumed to be a group of old tombs in GongJu city. Soil susceptibility distribution around the target site is incorporated to improve the feasibility of the magnetic survey in detecting near surface archaeological area. A non-magnetic sensor-carrying device designed specially for this research was also used to minimize the influence of the man-made noise near the magnetic sensor. Although the magnetic anomaly was very weak, we could acquire clearly isolated anomalies corresponding to the known old tombs. As possible hidden old tombs, several anomalies were recommended through the comparison of three kinds of magnetic anomaly distributions. All the results showed that the magnetic method might be a useful tool for the archeological survey even where the magnetic susceptibility contrast was quite low.