Geophysical Prospection at a Buried Spanish Fort in South Argentina

LASCANO, EUGENIA; BONGIOVANNI, MARÍA VICTORIA; OSELLA, ANA; BUSCAGLIA, SILVANA; SENATORE, XIMENA

Palermo, Italy

Congreso; 11th Near Surface Annual Meeting; 2005

Geophysical methods were applied to characterize the Floridablanca archaeological site at San Julian Bay, Argentina. It corresponded to a little village established as part of a Spanish Crown project for the colonization and defence of the Patagonian Atlantic Coast. In this work we present the results obtained at one sector of the site that corresponded to a fort. The objective of the prospection was to detect buried archaeological structures, to delimit them and to find their characteristics. We applied ground penetrating radar (GPR), resistivity and electromagnetic induction (EMI) methods. We found anomalies that indicated the presence of isolated structures. Excavations performed following these results demonstrated that these anomalies corresponded to pit house floors and scattered remains of adobe walls.