Ideal open ground for archeo-geophysical surveys.

Level fields with short mowed grass are best suited for geophysical surveys because dense vegetation and other impediments can hinder efficient movement of the instruments over the landscape. The speed of a geophysical survey is inversely related to the number of impediments that must be dealt with (buildings, trees, large rocks, bushes, gravestones, etc.), the nature of ground cover (open fields, short mowed grass, vs. tall grass or weeds, rocky terrain), or variability in the ground surface (level of slope). Steep slopes can make movement of heavy instruments difficult (e.g., large GPR antennas) and the use of some instruments is based on a uniform rate of movement in a given time interval or a uniform altitude above the ground, which is made difficult by steep slopes or vegetated areas.

In this study area trees and gravestones are impediments to survey.

Owing to the size of most instruments it is frequently difficult to use them within heavily vegetated areas or move them between trees in forests. Moreover, because of the sampling schemes employed in area surveys to uniformly sample the ground (see traverses and samples), dense vegetation cover can make them impossible to employ if straight lines must be walked.

Some conditions only affect specific kinds of instruments. For example, rocky, very hard, or very dry ground makes electrical resistivity survey difficult or impossible to undertake because it may not be possible to insert probes in the ground or initiate current flow.

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