Large-Scale Archaeological Prospection of Early Modern Battlefields: Geophysical Surveys at the Battlefield of Waterloo.

Abstract

This thesis considers the role of large-scale minimally-invasive prospection methods for the archaeological investigation of early modern battlefields. This is explored using the Napoleonic battlefield of Waterloo, Belgium (1815) as a case study. Methodological focus is on the use of near- surface geophysical methods measuring electromagnetic soil properties (primarily frequency-domain electromagnetic induction and magnetometry). To date, geophysical methods have been applied in only a limited fashion on early modern conflict sites and typically not at the landscape scale required for the investigation of these expansive sites. Battlefield archaeology is a relatively recent sub-discipline which faces methodological challenges due to the extremely ephemeral nature of the evidence that these sites hold. These challenges are, however, not wholly unique and the work undertaken here is more broadly applicable to other types of archaeology involving subtle traces of the past. The work begins by carefully reviewing the relevant range of targets and the associated geophysical properties enabling their detection, which influences the choice of instrumentation. Next, geophysical datasets from Waterloo are considered, alongside information derived from a programme of invasive sampling, to evaluate the archaeological information provided by the large-scale prospection and suggest perspectives on future use. A parallel line of work considers a minimally-invasive workflow for the mapping of colluvial (eroded) soil deposits at Waterloo, which greatly influence the preservation and detectability of archaeological deposits of interest. Soil erosion in arable landscapes represents one of the most significant threats to archaeological sites around the world; thus, this aspect is broadly relevant. In all, this work demonstrates the insights provided by the application of non-invasive prospection methods at early modern battlefield sites, while emphasizing some of the ongoing challenges associated with detecting extremely subtle archaeological traces in palimpsest landscapes.