Non-invasive characterization of a burial tumulus with use of seismic P-wave velocity and attenuation tomography

Polymenakos, Lazaros; Tweeton, Daryl R.

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.03.025

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…For instance, at Kastas (Amphipolis) tumulus in northern Greece, the soil structure was investigated by first arrival traveltime tomography and attenuation tomography (Polymenakos & Tweeton, ). A geophone array was placed around the tumulus and ray coverage of the basal plane was achieved by shooting through the tumulus.…”

Section: Discussion – the Construction Of The Yiğma Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas the main aim of tumuli exploration is the localization of graves, investigations in recent years also focused on the tumulus as a construction itself, either for secure and efficient excavation planning (Polymenakos & Tweeton, ) or for getting insight into the building history of a tumulus (Kassabaum, Henry, Steponaitis, & O'Hear, ). In prospecting burials or tombs, geophysical methods are often used to detect disturbances of the surrounding soil layers or the remains of access tunnels, the so‐called ‘dromoi’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: stratigraphic construction of a monumental tumulus from seismic refraction measurements

Mecking

Meinecke

Erkul

et al. 2020

Archaeological Prospection

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The monumental tumulus Yı gma Tepe is an important part of the cityscape of the ancient city of Pergamon. The tumulus construction is estimated in the Hellenistic period, the internal structure and exact purpose have been unknown so far. Its height of 32 m and diameter of 158 m make the deep interior of the tumulus practically inaccessible for excavations. Therefore, we applied a combination of geophysical measurements and archaeological sondages to explore the structure of the Yı gma Tepe. The investigations centre on P-wave refraction soundings. They were carried out to clarify the stratigraphic structure and soil composition as a prerequisite for a better understanding of construction techniques, building history and soil deposition.Interactive seismic raytracing, traveltime tomography and visco-elastic forward modelling were applied to derive a three-dimensional seismic velocity model, which was validated by excavations and soil analysis, historical records and additional geoelectric measurements. Our results reveal that the tumulus is composed of three layers, each about 10 m thick, separated by first-order seismic discontinuities which were locally verified. These layers form a stack of conical disks, the interfaces of which define two internal plateaus. The analysis of soil samples showed that the seismic velocity increase at the interfaces is likely to be caused by anthropogenic compaction applied to soils showing increased fractions of silt and clay. By combining topographic data with results from seismic and geoelectric sounding on the tumulus, the surrounding trench and the unaltered surrounding area, we show that the tumulus was built almost completely from the surrounding soils and that 17% of its original volume was displaced by destruction and erosion. Based on this mass balance the strongly destroyed and eroded original surface of the tumulus and its surrounding trench is reconstructed.

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Section: Discussion – the Construction Of The Yiğma Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: stratigraphic construction of a monumental tumulus from seismic refraction measurements

Mecking

Meinecke

Erkul

et al. 2020

Archaeological Prospection

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“…They include the means for amplitude trace balancing (RMS), AGC, bandpass filtering, F-K transformation, predictive deconvolution, polarization filtering and tomographic imaging inversion (e.g. Du et al, 2006;Uhlemann et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017;Polymenakos and Tweeton 2017), reverse time migration (RTM) method (Yan and Liu 2013;Cheng et al, 2014).…”

Section: Data Acquisition and Pre-processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The tunnel seismic advance prediction method with wide illumination and a high signal‐to‐noise ratio

Liao

Wang

et al. 2020

Geophysical Prospecting

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Tunnel seismic prediction is widely used in the field of tunnel seismic advance detection. The illumination of the target and the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the data are two key factors affecting the precision of data interpretation. Current seismic prospecting has shortcomings on sites: (1) The lighting shots are solely towards one side of the tunnel wall, (2) the geophones are placed far away from the tunnel face and (3) the surface waves from the tunnel wall dominate over the reflection waves, lowering the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the data at the tunnel wall. This paper proposes a tunnel symmetrical geometry to tackle the above challenges. The arrangement is to place 12 sources uniformly on each side of the tunnel wall and six geophones on the tunnel wall and face. Results of simulated data and measured data show that the proposed method enables (1) broad illumination of the target body, (2) the enhancement of illumination energy of the target body, and (3) higher data signal‐to‐noise ratio. The proposed symmetrical geometry method provides better interpretation in terms of broader coverage, higher quality and greater distance of investigation.

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“…In the past, monumental burial mounds were investigated rarely because both geophysical sounding and excavations require unusually high technical efforts. In the eastern Mediterranean, experience in geophysical prospection was gained, for example, at Kastas tumulus in Amphipolis (Greece) where P-wave seismic tomography (Polymenakos & Tweeton, 2017) and 3D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) (Tsokas et al, 2018) were performed to clarify the geological structure and identify targets of interest for future excavations. Lütjen and Utecht (1991) used P-wave seismic measurements and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to image the interior of the Nemrut Da gi in southeastern Turkey to locate burial chambers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: Internal construction of a monumental burial mound from shear wave reflection sounding and wavefield modelling

Mecking

Meinecke

Erkul

et al. 2021

Archaeological Prospection

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Non-invasive characterization of a burial tumulus with use of seismic P-wave velocity and attenuation tomography

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: stratigraphic construction of a monumental tumulus from seismic refraction measurements

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: stratigraphic construction of a monumental tumulus from seismic refraction measurements

The tunnel seismic advance prediction method with wide illumination and a high signal‐to‐noise ratio

The Yığma Tepe of Pergamon: Internal construction of a monumental burial mound from shear wave reflection sounding and wavefield modelling

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