Topographic survey

The modern ground surface or topography often contains important information on the conditions and nature of an archaeological site, and the potential existence of structures buried beneath the soil. The changes in topography can also have a great influence on determining the nature of features in a geophysical survey. Therefore it is vital to produce a detailed and complete topographic survey as part of the field survey of any given site. This generally entails the recording of elevations across a grid of certain resolution, for instance 5 or 10m intervals, but also the recording of points on known breaks of slope, to emphasis archaeological features in the landscape.

APSS provide the following topographic services:

• Topographic and close-contour survey of sites and landscapes using total station
• Topographic and close-contour survey of sites and landscapes using differential GPS
• Site gridding using total station and GPS
• Low resolution finds or site recording using hand-held GPS
• On-site planning for archaeological excavations and surveys