Highways to hell : Archaeogeophysical prospection and development-led archaeology in the Czech republic
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In the light of the recent economic and construction boom in the Czech Republic, it becomes extremely difficult to conduct and manage archaeological excavation on the places endangered by the constructions. The need for an effective management, preparation and execution of the archaeological excavation in an overload time schedule, where human resources are a bigger issue than a financial one, have led to growing interest in archaeogeophysical prospection. Within last year Department of Archaeology and Museology at Masaryk University Brno made several of advance geophysical prospection surveys in the Czech Republic. Surveys carried out in cooperation with contract archaeological companies as well as road authorities clearly demonstrate the advantages of archaeogeophysical prospection conducted prior to the excavation itself. These surveys have significantly helped both field archaeologists as well as investors to plan archaeological excavation and construction work in advance and to create a convenient time schedule for both parties. Besides cost and time savings, integration of archeogeophysical prospection into the process of planning points out the several weaknesses of the traditional excavation method used in the development-led archaeology. In our paper, we would like to present results of large area magnetic surveys conducted prior to the archaeological excavations and construction of the highways in the Czech Republic. |