Imaging of multilayered archaeological settlements using electrical resistivity inversion method

In archaeology, multilayered settlements (höyük, tell, tepe) are among the most important sites for investigation and excavation. This type of site is a sub-circular, nucleated settlement composed of mud and stone-based materials remaining from different archaeological times; it presents a complex archaeological context. This thesis discusses the usefulness of the data acquisition and inversion facilities of electrical resistivity inversion (electrical resistivity tomography-ERT) method to define buried structures and settlement plans of various archaeological layers of the höyük. ERT results were analyzed according to the effects of different electrode arrays (Wenner-alfa, Wenner-Schlumberger, dipole-dipole, pole-pole and pole-dipole), line and electrode intervals and line orientations in the context of simulation and field studies. The inversion of the apparent resistivity data were achieved using a developed code in Matlab and commercial software. The robust and smoothness-constrained inversion techniques were performed during the evaluations in which the forward solution was achieved using the finite-difference and finite-element approaches. Modelling and field studies reveal that the ERT method produces satisfactory subsurface images if there is sufficient resistivity contrast between the archaeological structures and covering soil of them. Developed Matlab code shows a good correlation with the commercial software. The ERT results indicate that a semi-fully 3D investigation provides more accurate solutions than quasi-3D applications. In the course of array investigations, dipole-dipole, pole-pole and pole-dipole arrays present more informative images than the Wenner and Wenner-Schlumberger. The inter-electrode and inter-line spacing, as well as the line orientation effects, were also investigated during the studies. Therefore, a reasonable field and inversion strategies for ERT studies of the multilayered settlements are suggested. The results of this thesis conclude that ERT is a highly suitable technique for the determination of settlements that have layered stratigraphy.