Comprehensive Field Survey - Multidisciplinary Approach for a Field Prospection
Julia Maria Chyla, Marzena Ożarek-Szilke, Wojciech Ejsmond
Abstract Since 2013 the goals of the Gebelein Archaeological Project are to recognize the potential of the site complex, to show the most threatened areas, to document the visible archaeological features and to summarize its more than 100 years old research history. Our aims lead us to the simultaneous management of different kinds of data, which were not only collected and post-processed but interpreted as well. The amount of information collected from different sources, resulted in the development of a new method for gathering information from the field, open source databases and archives. We would like to present the results of the past two years of testing this new approach on the examples of northern cemeteries of Gebelein. This area was chosen for several reasons. One of them is the tomb of Iti- a grave of a high official from the late 3rd millennium BC. Iti’s tomb was excavated by the Italian mission at the beginning of the 20th century and its area was researched later on in 1990s. During our research we discovered numerous archaeological features unmentioned in earlier publications. This situation provided us with a suitable area for testing the new method comprising of: the gathering of archival data about the excavations previously conducted in this area, the analysis of the necropolis’ destruction through satellite photos and a field survey with the use of mobile GIS focused on anthropological data ( such as sex, age, paleopathology, osteometry), ceramic (type, part, dating) and archaeological data (type of feature, is it threaten, etc.). The results gained gave us a new view on the context that the Iti tomb was localized in and on the northern necropolis.
