Basing House Spring Survey – Week 2 Day One

After a few weeks out of the field, the staff and students from the University of Southampton arrived back at Basing House to start the geophysical survey component of the fieldwork. A mix of third year students from Archaeology and Oceanography, Erasmus students and postgraduates headed out to the site. Chris Elmer again gave the group a tour of the site, while supervisors commenced gridding out the site using Smartnet GPS. The group were then divided into teams to carry out magnetometry, resistance survey, GPR and magnetic susceptibility.

Magnetometry commenced in the area to the west and south of the ringwork and Old House, covering parts of the Civil War defences. Two Bartington Instruments gradiometers were used. The resistivity teams started work in the area of the Outer Bailey, surveying at 0.5m by 0.5m resolution.

One team also got to grips with a survey of the Old House using a 200Mhz GPR . The aim with this is to map the remaining buied walls and rooms of the Old House, some of which run to a depth of 5-6m below the modern ground surface.

Results from the first day of work indicate possible Iron Age and Romano-British remains in the magnetometry, together with the clear line of the Civil War earthworks, and structures in the resistance and GPR survey. It is early days so far, but in the coming days more news on the project will be posted here and at basinghousecat.wordpress.com!