North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
Graphic/Image:
Project Name: Whistling Elk Village, SD (39HU242);
References: Toom, D. L. and K. L. Kvamme (2001). The "Big House" at Whistling Elk Village (39HU242): Geophysical Findings and Archaeological Truths. Plains Anthropologist, in press.
Kvamme, K.L. (2000). Current Practices in Archaeogeophysics: Magnetics, Resistivity, Conductivity, and Ground-Penetrating Radar. In Earth Sciences and Archaeology, P. Goldberg, V. Holliday, and R. Ferring, eds., Plenum Press, New York, pp. 353-384.
Kvamme, K.L. (1999). Geophysical Explorations at the Whistling Elk Site (39HU242), Hughes County, South Dakota, 1998 Field Season. Submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District Office.
Kvamme, K.L. (1999). The Whistling Elk Subsurface Imaging Project. http://www.cast.uark.edu/~kkvamme/Whistle/Whistle.htm
Kvamme, K.L. (1998). Geophysical Exploration at the Whistling Elk Site (39HU242), Hughes County, South Dakota. Submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District Office.
The
results of the electromagnetic conductivity survey at Whistling Elk Village,
SD, covered
an area of approximately 16,600 sq m and required nearly 33,200 measurements.
Cultural
features, nearly a meter deep, tend to exhibit low conductivity, due to differing
electrical
properties of the eolian sediments that in-filled house and fortification depressions
after the
site's abandonment. The sharp line near the southern part of the village is
the Army Corps of
Engineers protective berm created as part of a bank stabilization program to
protect this site
from further erosion from Lake Sharpe to the south. A portion of the northwest
quadrant of
this village was not surveyed by conductivity methods owing to the presence
of a steel wire
and post fence which profoundly effects soil conductivity measurements.