EAGER: Assessing the Reliability of the Geophysical identification of Early Christian Churchyards and burials in Northern Iceland

这是一个迫切的项目，旨在测试地球物理勘测方法的可靠性，以确定冰岛被掩埋的基督教教堂墓地和墓地。这项研究将使冰岛/美国联合小组能够评估两种地球物理方法在五个已知或疑似早期维京时代教堂墓地的可靠性，这些教堂位于不同的地球物理环境中。目前，探测冰岛维京时代基督教墓地最可靠的地球物理方法是探地雷达。问题是，要想让探地雷达发挥作用，就必须在调查前除草。这是昂贵的，而且可能会对考古学背景造成破坏。该小组将使用电磁(EM)测量和新的多传感器仪器作为另一种方法来定位教堂墓地保存下来的墙壁。这一评估这些地球物理应用的独特机会带来的积极结果可以极大地扩展我们对维京时代早期基督教实践的了解。更广泛地说，许多创新，特别是在确定墓地和绘制坟墓地图方面，在其他考古地区和时期以及其他领域(例如法医学)都有应用。识别墓地和绘制墓穴分布地图的能力，以及可能评估骨骼保存的能力，对世界各地的考古调查、遗产管理工作和法医科学家具有明显的价值。

This is an EAGER project to test the reliability of geophysical reconnaissance methods to identify buried Christian churchyards and cemeteries in Iceland. The research will allow the joint Icelandic/US team to evaluate the reliability of two geophysical methods on five known or suspected early Viking Age churchyards that are in a variety of geophysical environments. Currently, the most reliable geophysical method to detect Viking Age Christian cemeteries in Iceland is GPR. The problem is that for GPR to be effective, it is necessary to strip off the grass in advance of survey. This is expensive and potentially destructive to archaeological contexts. The team will employ electromagnetic (EM) surveying with new multi-sensor instrumentation as an alternative method for locating preserved walls of churchyards. Positive results from this unique opportunity to evaluate these geophysical applications could greatly expand our knowledge of early Christian practices of the Viking Age. More broadly, many of the innovations, especially in identifying cemeteries and mapping graves, have applications in other archaeological regions and periods, as well as other fields (e.g., forensic sciences). The ability to identify cemeteries and map the distribution graves and possibly to assess skeletal preservation has obvious value to archaeological investigations, heritage management efforts, and forensic scientists around the world.