SDO15582 - Report on a Geophysical Survey of Round Barrows at Kinson Common Nature Reserve, Bournemouth

Topographical and geophysical surveys of a saucer barrow and a bowl barrow at Kinson Common Nature Reserve. Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), electrical resistivity measurement, Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) were used to examine the usefulness of ERT and GPR in revealing the structure of round barrows. Features were identified that were not detectable by conventional two-dimensional survey as well as estimating three-dimensional factors such as depth and thickness. Some features ‘seen’ by ERT and GPR were related to one another. The survey identified the depths and dimensions of barrow ditches, the location of possible burial pits, and other anomalies that invite explanation. The difficulty in estimating the depth of GPR data with precision limited the possibility of integrating data from these two techniques.