North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
Abstract/Summary:
Project Name: Tibes, Puerto Rico;
Reference: Curet, L.A., L.A. Newsom, and D. Welch. (1998). Report on the 1998 Tibes Archaeological Project Resistivity Survey, Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The goal of the recent archaeological work at the civic-ceremonial center of Tibes has been to study community patterning, household organization, and the economic strategies of prehistoric inhabitants of the site. To achieve these ends, field research was done during the summers of 1995 and 1996 to identify areas of domestic refuse and habitation. Traditional methods, including shovel testing and small test excavations, were used to identify the locations of deposits and recover materials needed to characterize them. These methods were successful in locating deposits, but were only able to provide but a small glimpse of the subsurface remains. An electrical resistivity survey was proposed for the summer 1998 field season to supplement the traditional methods by providing a high-resolution 'map' of subsurface anomalies very quickly. This report summarizes the methods and results of the survey and presents recommendations for future geophysical work at the site.