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Integration of geophysical surveys with processing, inversion and modelling techniques for
archaeological prospection. Case studies: Meroe city and Musawwarat es sufra - Sudan.
Mohamed Ali* and Sun Heping, Institute of Geodesy & Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science,
Hans Burkhardt, Department of Geophysics, TU – Berlin.
Summary:
The horizontal extensions of the prospected archaeological
features were revealed by magnetic surveys, which have been
integrated with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in
Meroe city and ground penetrating radar (GPR) in
Musawwarat es Sufra – Sudan to provide complementary
information about the vertical extension of the anomalies
related to the archaeological features. Processing techniques
such as calculating derivatives, reduction to the pole (RTP) and
field transformation have been applied on the collected
magnetic data to simplify the anomalies making the
interpretation easier. 3D modeling and inversion of magnetic
data from the studied archaeological features have been done
using a priori information, which were of great help to select a
good starting model and to end the inversion process in a
plausible model with low rms error. Robust constraint (block
DOI:10.1190/1.3603572
inversion) was preferred in the inversion of ERT data to reduce
the effect of noisy electrical data points and to produce more
reliable and acceptable model in Meroe city. GPR processing
methods were used in the collected data in Musawwarat to
reduce random noise, instrument noise, and clutters and
application of a time-range gain to enhance weak reflections.
The conversion of time to depth section using estimated wave
velocities was helpful to model the interesting GPR anomalies.
The Introduction
The current paper will discuss some examples for integration
of geophysical surveys with processing, inversion and
modeling techniques for archaeological prospection in Meroe
City and Musawwarat es Sufra – Sudan. It is intended to
demonstrate and enhance how it was successful using such
techniques to improve the geophysical signals so as to extract
the maximum information from archaeogeophysical data and
to give better chances for successful applications and
interpretations.
The studied archaeological sites in Sudan include Meroe city
and Musawwarat es Sufra. They are located in central Sudan as
follows; Meroe city is situated on the east bank of the River
Nile about 40 km north Shendi, which is located about 160 km
north of Khartoum (The capital of Sudan) and Musawwarat es
Sufra is located further to the east of the River Nile in Butana
desert about 32 km southeast Shendi. Both sites are also
belonging to Kush, which is a name introduced for the
kingdom, which was established about the 8th century B.C at
Napata near Jebel Barkal in northern Sudan.
The kushite dynasty originated in Napata region, however the
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CPS/SEG Beijing 2009 International Geophysical Conference & Exposition
royal residence (center of the government) was transferred
later from Napata to Meroe city (Török, 1997).
The magnetic data in the current study were collected using
total magnetic caesium magnetometer (G-822) in
Musawwarat es Sufra and vertical gradient fluxgate
gradiometer (FM36) in Meroe city. Ground penetrating
radar (GPR) using GSSI antenna (500 Mhz) was carried
out in Musawwarat es Sufra, which is located in semi-arid
area. Whereas electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)
survey using SARIS resistivity imaging system replaced
GPR with in Meroe city, which is located nearby to the
River Nile in a humid subsurface area.
Magnetic results
The collected magnetic data were subjected to different
types of magnetic image processing techniques such as
despiking, filtering (high pass, low pass & band pass) to
enhance subtle patterns & weak signals and to suppress
unwanted noises. The necessary processing steps were
selected on request after investigation of the raw magnetic
data. The refined magnetic images and maps will be
presented in this part to show the anomalies of the most
interesting archaeological features.
The results of the magnetic survey in the first area in Meroe
city are presented as grey tone vertical gradient magnetic
image (Figure 1a) with negative anomalies as black and
positive as white. The linear intersected anomalies in this
magnetic image are interpreted as a grid of buildings. These
buildings are assumed to be an extension of the excavated
archaeological buildings, which is so-called Palace M750 in
the previous excavations (Grzymski, 2005).
The vertical gradient magnetic image (Figure 1b) of the
western part of Meroe city (second area) confirms that it is
possible to detect the Enclosure wall in Meroe city using
magnetic survey. The wall is shown up as broad, linear,
non-magnetic anomaly showing almost zero value in the
magnetic scale of the image map. This anomaly coincides
with the location of the Enclosure wall (made of sandstone
blocks) in the site map typically.
Yard 601 represents the biggest yard in the western part of
the Great Enclosure in Musawwarat. This yard has been
prospected using caesium magnetometer. The most
interesting anomaly of this yard is presented as surface map
in Figure 1c and the same anomaly has been selected for
further study using ground penetrating surveys (Figure 1c).
 Geophysical techniques for archaeo-prospection
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a) b) c)

Figure 1: Magnetic results, ERT and GPR locations in the studied archaeological sites. a) Magnetic image of the area south of
palace M 750 in Meroe city showing the location of ERT profile1, b) Magnetic image of an area include part of the Enclosure
wall in Meroe city showing the location of ERT profile2, c) Magnetic surface map of the selected anomaly of Yard 60 in the
Great Enclosure, Musawwarat es Sufra showing the locations of GPR profiles.
This anomaly is located in the centre of the square, which The second data set (Figure 2g) shows the calculation of the
shows GPR profiles. It has irregular geometry with higher vertical component of magnetic field by integration of the
magnetic susceptibility than its surroundings. This high measured vertical gradient of the vertical component of
magnetic susceptibility might to be attributed to fired magnetic field (Figure 2e). It is found that the calculated
materials. vertical component from the measured total magnetic field
data (Figure 2d) correlating well with the calculated vertical
DOI:10.1190/1.3603572

Results of processing and modelling techniques on
magnetic data
Reduction to the pole (RTP) technique is usually done on
magnetic data to simplify the magnetic anomalies for an easier
interpretation. Reduction to the pole was first tested on the
total magnetic data (Figure 2a), which represents the anomaly
in Figure 1c, by a software (WinGlink) using fast fourier
transform algorithm (FFT). Reduction to the pole on the total
magnetic data using FFT algorithm is problematic and useless
(Figure 2b). The problem comes from that the studied sites
(Meroe & Musawwarat) are located in areas with relatively
low latitudes. Moreover, magnetic data over archaeological
sites are usually noisy. Therefore, software with special
algorithm is required to overcome the problem of instability of
reduction to the pole of noisy data at low latitudes. The
algorithm, which was used in RTP, was introduced by Keating
& Zerbo (1996). The corresponding RTP using the later
algorithm (Figure 2c) looks better than that one using FFT
algorithm. It makes the original total magnetic map to some
extent simpler and easier for the interpretation.
Magnetic field transformation processes can be used to switch
between the total magnetic field, magnetic components and
their gradients. The total magnetic anomaly, which was used
above for RTP (Figure 2a), will be used again to demonstrate
the applicability of magnetic field transformation. Figure 2f
shows an example of calculation of vertical gradient of the
vertical component of magnetic field from the measured total
magnetic field. To perform this process, it was necessary first
to calculate the vertical component of magnetic field (Figure
2d) and then simply to calculate the first vertical derivative of
the calculated vertical component.
component from the measured vertical gradient of vertical
component of magnetic field data (Figure 2g). This
indicates the reliability of transformation of such data. It is
confirmed accordingly that the measured and the calculated
gradient data are more effective as stated by Blakely (1996)
for detecting shallow subsurface anomalies and for
resolving their boundaries than the measured and calculated
total field. Finally, it can be concluded that field
transformation is reliable and applicable on magnetic data
from archaeological sites. The calculation of the first
vertical derivative (Figure 2f) is demonstrated to enhance
the high frequencies including the interested anomalies by
sharpening the edges of these anomalies.
3D modelling and inversion of magnetic data are usually
aimed to estimate geometries, dimensions and locations of
the models of the target anomalies. One of the most
important archaeological features in the western part of
Meroe city, which are obviously drawn in magnetic image
in Figure 1b, is the city wall (Enclosure wall). This wall is
outcropping in some areas with horizontal extension
ranging between 4 m and 5 meters. It is composed of
massive sandstone blocks embedded in mud-clayey soil. Its
vertical extension extends up to 1.35 meter, estimated from
the inverted ERT profile2 (Figure 3b). This information
besides magnetic susceptibility measurements of the
magnetic anomaly of the Enclosure wall in Meroe city
(Figure 1b) were used to guide the modelling and inversion
processes and also to be used as constraints in the inversion
process trying to reduce the potential field interpretation
ambiguity. 3D modelling and inversion was done using
demo version of the Potent4_09_04_beta software.

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 Geophysical techniques for archaeo-prospection
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a) b) c) d)

e) f) g) h) rms error = 1.446%

Figure 2: Reduction to the pole, calculation of the derivative and field transformation on the anomaly of interest in Figure 1c,
DOI:10.1190/1.3603572

Yard 601, Musawwarat, magnetic field with Incl. of 17.5 ‫ ס‬and Decl. of 2.1‫ ס‬a) Original total magnetic field contour map
(measured by caesium magnetometer) b) RTP of Figure 2a using software with fast fourier transform algorithm. c) RTP of
Figure 2a using software with Wiener filtering algorithm d) Contour map of the calculated vertical component from the total
magnetic field data (Figure 2a). e) The original vertical gradient of vertical component magnetic field contour map (measured
by fluxgate gradiometer) of the same grid in Figure 1c and Figure 2a. f) Contour map of the calculated first vertical derivative
from the vertical component of magnetic field (Figure 3d). g) Contour map of the calculated vertical component by integration
of the measured vertical gradient data in Figure 1e h) Shows the observed, calculated & residual magnetic data curves and
the corresponding final model of the inverted anomaly (Figure 1b).

In the first trial for modelling of the magnetic data (vertical
gradient data), when all the parameters of the body in model
were set free to change during the inversion process. The
inversion process started with rms error of about 2.15 % and
ended with rms error of about 0.56%. Although final rms is
low, but the height of the model (2.5 m) looks greater than the
assumed height of the wall, which was estimated to be 1.35 m
from resistivity tomography (Figure 3b). This result confirms
the inaccuracy of unconstraint magnetic inversion process to
calculate the depth and height from magnetic data. The best
estimates of the wall thickness, depth and location of the
inverted magnetic anomaly were revealed in the second trial by
fixing the magnetic susceptibility and freeing all other
parameters. This coincides with the best inversion result,
which was revealed by Herwanger et al. (2000). In our case
study, although the rms error 1.45% looks relatively larger
than the rms of the first inversion trial (0.56%.), but a more
plausible model was revealed. Figure 2h shows the observed,
calculated & residual magnetic data curves and the final model
of the inverted model2. The second remark on this model that
the calculated depth to the top of the body (0.88 m) looks a
little bit greater than the expected 0.5 m depth (Ali and
Burkhardt 2007).
ERT inversion results in Meroe city
The ERT processes have been done using blocky inversion,
which was described by Loke and Dahlin (2003) and the
inversion results of ERT profile 1 is shown in Figure 3a.
The dark (red) color, regular geometry-, and vertically
elongated resistivity anomalies in the inverted section may
be attributed to sandstone walls. The resistivities of these
bodies are ranging between 180 ohm.m and 1500 ohm.m.
These high resistive bodies are embedded in low resistive
mud- clayey soil with resistivity ranging between 1 ohm.m
and 30 ohm.m. To make the correlation easier, the
corresponding locations of the anomalies that were derived
from magnetic results (Figure 1a) are drawn in the upper
part of the inverted section. The locations of the anomalies
in the inverted resistivity section match well with the
corresponding locations from magnetic results indicating
the reliability of resistivity tomography for defining the
vertical boundaries more sharply. Moreover, it was found
that the thicknesses of these walls vary between 0.3 m to
0.6 m. These results match relatively well to the correct
thicknesses of walls, which was found to be 0.5 m in the
test excavation by Grzymski (2005).

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a)

b) c)
Figure 3a: The inversion and modelling results of the ERT and GPR profiles. a) The inverted ERT profile1, which was carried
across the magnetic anomaly of walls (Figure 1a) of the discovered extension of palace M750. 3b) The inverted ERT profile2,
which was carried across the Enclosure wall (Figure 1b), the dash line represents the original horizontal extension. 3c) Display of
the time - depth section of GPR profile 3, which was carried across the anomaly of interest (Figure 1c) in the magnetic image of
Yard 601, Musawwarat.
DOI:10.1190/1.3603572

Conclusions

The inversion results of ERT profile 2 is shown in Figure
3b. The most prominent resistivity anomaly in this section is
displayed as a dark (red) rectangular body with a width
extends to about 4 m. Its location corresponds well to the
location of the wall in the magnetic image (Figure 1b). The
high resistivity value (3400 ohm.m) of this rectangular
anomaly is attributed to the hard-, very dry sandstone blocks
of the Enclosure wall. The inverted ERT section shows that
the vertical extension of this resistive body is extending up
to 1.35 m.
GPR results in Musawwarat
GPR data have been carried out using SIR 10b with a 500
MHz antenna from Geophysical Survey Systems (GSSI) to
resolve the targeted magnetic anomaly in the area of interest
(Figure 1c). The raw data were subjected different GPR
processing techniques, which are usually used to enhance
the anomalies of interest and to remove the effect of the
unwanted signals (Conyers and Goodman, 1997). The
referenced magnetic anomaly of interest has been
investigated using 10 closely-spaced (0.5 m apart) parallel
GPR profiles. GPR Profile3 (Figure 3c) is selected as an
example for these profiles. The GPR anomaly in this profile
appears as semi-flat to curved reflector. The depth sections
of all profiles were calculated using estimated radar wave
velocity (0.15 m/ns) for the medium (dry sand). Results of
depth calculation show that the target anomaly lies in a
depth ranging between 0.5 m and 0.8 m.
2D resistivity tomography sections, with locations selected on
basis of magnetic results in Meroe city, show that the depths
of the Palace M750 walls and Enclosure are less than 1 m and
reveal a good matching with the corresponding locations from
magnetic results. GPR data confirm the interesting total
magnetic field anomaly in Yard 601 of Musawwarat and show
that its depth is estimated to be about 0.50 m. The final
interpretation of this anomaly suggested stair-like structure,
which may be composed of hard construction material with
high magnetic susceptibility. Therefore, a test excavation on
this anomalous area is highly recommended. The calculation
of the vertical derivatives on magnetic maps is an effective
mean for the enhancement and sharpening of shallow
anomalies (e.g. archaeological features) on account of the
deep geological structures. After the overcoming of the
problem of instability of reduction to the pole process due
noisy data at low latitude, RTP was successful to simplify the
magnetic anomalies making the interpretation easier.
Magnetic field transformation was used to enhance shallow
subsurface archaeological source on account of the deep
geological ones, when total field was measured. Due to the
problem of ambiguity of the interpretation of magnetic field,
modelling and inversion of magnetic data alone may be
misleading for defining thicknesses and depths of the target
sources, but trial to reveal an unique solution may be achieved
by integrating a priori information.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank DAAD and CAS-TWAS for
financing the project and all others for helps and cooperation.

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