New GPR to help archaeological excavations

Shirley Wijesinghe

The Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) has acquired a new Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR ) to detect underground objects with ease.

The radar costing Rs. 10 million will help to detect the clues about the exact locations of underground archaeological structures which will also be helpful for archaeological excavations.

The radar however cannot be applied to detect the hints about underground micro objects such as artifacts, a Senior Geophysicist of the GSMB told the Daily News yesterday.

The radar will emit an Electromagnetic Wave from the soil surface and reflect reliable data about the underground structure. The results of the survey to introduce the radar which had been carried out by the GSMB as a pilot project at the Sigiriya archaeological Site were a success.