North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
Abstract/Summary:
Project Name: Hungo Pavi (Chaco Canyon National Monument), NM;
Reference: Vickers, R., Dolphin, L., and D. Johnson (1976). Archeological Investigations at Chaco Canyon Using a Subsurface Radar. In Remote Sensing Experiments in Cultural Resource Studies: Non-Destructive Methods of Archeological Exploration, Survey, and Analysis. Reports of the Chaco Center. National Park Service and University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1:81-101.
From 1974 to 1976, ground penetrating radar experiments were conducted at various sites within Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico, for the purpose of evaluating the performance of GPR when applied to archeology.The original system used in these experiments was a ground penetrating radar that was developed for use in locating underground utilities and shalow geologically related phenomena such as solution cavities, fractures, and voids. A natural outgrowth of this work was the use of the radar system to nvestigate other man-made objects such as archeological structures that may have suffered partial or total burial.
The most striking results during the 1974 surveys were obtained at Hungo Pavi, where the presence of man-made structures was easily seen in the raw data. The area traversed at this site was undisturbed, and extended across a prominent mound containing an extension of the main pueblo structure. The mound was some 5 to 6 kilometers in width and was surmised to contain rooms as well as a portion of a masonry wall. The vertical extent of this record is about 4 meters and the horizontal extent about 8 meters. Vertical structures with interconnecting horizontal members are clearly depicted and indicate a man-made origin. From the scale, it is obvious that the horizontal sections are not the floors of successive stories as was first thought, but more probably different levels of partially decayed walls.
In 1975 and 1976 ground penetrating radar was used at the undisturbed site of Pueblo Alto. One traverse was made over the trash mound for the Pueblo with predictably negative results. The radar showed nothing but numerous scatterers within the soil. In physical terms, this indicated that no objects were present in the mound that were both different in dielectric constant and larger than about half a wavelength. A survey was then made of the plaza using a grid spacing of 5 meters and grid lines 70 meters in length. Several plots of the echoes were prepared. Two of the echo locations were tested. The first contained near-surface masonry structures, and the second showed marked deformation of the soil strata indicating a possible mass at greater depths.