New Technology Sheds Light on Old Story

Archeologists put some rather new technology to work helping to uncover previously unknown areas of interest in Richmond Castle, a Norman castle in England dating back to the time of William the Conqueror.  Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones were the tools selected.  Previously aerial photography done by a piloted plane was prohibitively expensive and was not often used, now UAVs are often utilized to reveal shadows and indentations in the ground that are usually difficult to see.  GPR involves a radar unit mounted on a wheeled cart pushed by hand over sections of a grid, sending radar pulses below the surface mapping layers in the subsurface.  Advances in technology now make the use of GPR actually more cost and time efficient than methods previously used.

In this project, outlines of walls, plumbing, and entrances to the castle that had been closed off long ago were revealed and were used to pinpoint areas of interest in this historically sensitive area.  This information reduces the destructive aspect of searching through random trench digging.

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