Comparing the effectiveness of ground-penetrating radar in locating stockade features at prehistoric and historic archaeological sites

The use of ground-penetrating radar has become increasingly popular in an archaeological context in recent years. The geophysical technique is useful in the detection and mapping of subsurface features at archaeological sites, and provides a minimally-invasive option that may help preserve the site for future research. This study examines the effectiveness of ground-penetrating radar when used to search for a stockade and associated features at two sites of differing time periods. The two archaeological sites surveyed in this study are the Mary Rinn site (36IN29) in Indiana County, Pennsylvania and the Fort Shirley site (36HU94) in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The Mary Rinn site dates to the Late Woodland Period in Pennsylvania, while the Fort Shirley site was a frontier fort used during the French and Indian War. The purpose of the study is to determine the geophysical technique's ability to detect such features, and to compare the results between a prehistoric and historic archaeological site.