Archaeological Interest

[tjfinan]

I am a newbie to this forum.

I am an archaeologist specializing in medieval Ireland. I direct an ongoing excavation and survey in Ireland at a site called Kilteasheen (http://www.kilteasheen.com). We have used geophysics extensively on our site. I am also part of a team of scholars at Saint Louis University trying to establish a program in archaeology in the Saint Louis area, focusing on Civil War and immigrant settlement.

I shall be blunt. I think academic archaeologists have broken the connection with metal detecting for too long (it is even worse in Ireland, where metal detecting is illegal). I came across the website by accident, and am very intrigued by the level of creative work done by the participants. In short, I think some of you could likely find archaeologists (like myself) who would be very interested in purchasing ready made instruments like magnetometers, magnetic susceptibility and ER equipment. The main companies that produce these items sell to corporate geophysical surveyors, it seems, so they can charge prices that academic researches as myself simply cant afford.

So, keep up the good work. I am going to keep looking through these forums...if anyone can produce a magnetic susceptibility meter that is comparable to a Barrington that can be used for a field survey, we should talk!

Tom Finan
Assistant Professor of History
Saint Louis University

[99thpercentile]

I agree with some of your issues. As a geophysicist who has done some archaeology and helped to teach an archaeology field camp I know that the price and useability of current geophysical instruments can be daunting. The reasons for the current state of affairs are many. The biggest problem is that the number of instruments produced per year by most geophysical instrument companies is very low, which is the reason for the high prices. When you only sell ten or twenty instruments you can't afford to drop the price very much. This is a catch 22, everyone wants cheaper instruments but unless the manufacturers are guaranteed an order of magnitude increase in sales they can't risk it.

There is huge potential for improvement in the ergonomics of the instruments and the ease of use as well. These issues can only be pushed forward quickly if the entire user base lets the manufacturers know what they need to change. Since I work for the US Army and we are trying to increase the use of of geophysics by active duty personnel, we are trying to use our resources to improve the useability of the instruments.

There are many people who would like a cheaper field magnetic susceptibility meter which is comparable to the Bartington MS2D, which is something that I am working on. There are a few instruments that might meet that need now such as the ZH Instruments SM-30. Let me know if you have specific questions.

Ryan North
Research Geophysicist