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Magnetometry

Multi-Spectral Imaging

LRC Project EH3841

Magnetometry

Magnetometry is currently the most widely used geophysical technique used for archaeological prospection. It was tested in the United Kingdom for the first time in an archaeological context in 1958, where a proton magnetometer designed and constructed by Martin Aitken and Edward Hall at the research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford University successfully detected, among other features, a kiln at a site at Water Newton (Aitken, 1958, 24-26).

Many different types of magnetometer are available, but the most commonly used are fluxgate gradiometers and caesium magnetometers.