Walking the walk: geophysics surveying

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.

The Time Team captains of geophysics, GSB Prospection, have had a good year. The results at the South Shields dig were too confused by 19th- and 20th-century development of the site to be of much help, even with the use of ground-penetrating radar. But the surveys carried out elsewhere for this series of Time Team have been impressive and some astoundingly clear plots have been recorded – especially during the excavations at Skipsea, on Humberside, for example, where a complicated succession of enclosures and boundaries, invisible at ground level, were clearly mapped.

The backbones of the geophysical surveys have once again been the magnetometry and resistivity methods, the dependable mainstays of field archaeology. GSB stalwarts Jimmy Adcock and Ben Urmston can often be seen striding across the landscape in the background of the filming, concentrating deeply and wielding unusual-looking pieces of equipment.

'We've got a flux gate gradiometer, which measures the magnetism in the soil,' says Jimmy. 'We use a double gradiometer set-up, which is essentially two machines calibrated together, so that we can survey twice as much area. What we are looking for is enhancements in the soil's magnetism, which can indicate if there is archaeology below the surface.'

Working from dawn till dusk the geophysics team gets plenty of exercise. 'We can walk loads of miles in a day,' continues Jimmy, 'and when it's raining and windy using the big flux gate can be like pushing a rugby post through treacle. I love my job.'

Ben Urmston also likes his country walks: 'By walking miles you get to think about stuff. Very deep thoughts in our own little world, like what would be really nice for dinner and things like that. We also end up with big legs.'

Text only