Page 8 - RAGBRAI2009

DAY 4 - INDIANOLA TO CHARITON
LiDAR in Archaeology: No Trowel or Dirt Required

Iowa is the sec- Left: Aerial photo of the Sny Magill is the potential to
ond state to undergo mound group in Clayton Co. Right: detect prehistoric
a statewide collec- LiDAR image revealing Sny Magill earthen features such
tion of LiDAR data. mound group without vegetation. as burial mounds
Airborne Light De- and earthlodge de-
tection and Ranging pressions in heavily
(LiDAR) is a remote- vegetated areas. The
sensing technology ground elevation
used to gather eleva- points are used to
tion data over a large create a continu-
area. An aircraft is ous surface void of
mounted with a de- vegetation which re-
vice that scans the sembles a moonscape.
surface with a laser; Viola! Archaeologists
the elevation of an now have a high-tech
object or ground sur- tool that can detect
face is determined by features such as buri-
the time it takes the al mounds as small as
laser to reflect back to 4 meters in diameter
the detector. Of inter- and 30 cm high.
est to archaeologists

Bones and teeth Archaeology and Preservation
from mammoths and
mastodons have been Archaeologists not only discover and dig sites,
found in all 99 of they also preserve them. After years of research and
Iowa’s counties. documentation by Jim Collins and Bill Whittaker
of the OSA, in March of 2009, the Folkert Mound
Group in Hardin County was accepted on the Na-
tional Register of Historic Places.

Mammoth discovery in
Crawford County, courtesy

of the State Historical
Society of Iowa.

Photograph courtesy of Gary Brandenburg.