• journal_title：The Leading Edge
• Contributor：Thomas M. Urban ; Douglas D. Anderson ; Wanni W. Anderson
• Publisher：Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• Date：2012-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.1190/tle31080950.1
• journal_abbrev：The Leading Edge
• issn：1070-485X
• volume：31
• issue：8
• firstpage：950
• section：Special section: Archaeology

Situated on the bank of the Kobuk River, the contact-period village site of Igliqtiqsiugvigruaq in northwest Alaska boasts a number of large, unexcavated house pits and storage pits visible as surface depressions. In 2010, an electromagnetic survey undertaken across most of this sprawling village revealed several features important to the archaeological interpretation of the site, including a likely area of intense, widespread burning and a possible dog yard location. Additional surveying, undertaken in 2011 with magnetic gradiometry and ground-penetrating radar, revealed the locations of hearths and other aspects of the internal structures of select dwellings and storage pits. These noninvasive geophysical strategies were used to supplement and guide excavation and geochemical prospecting at the site. The geophysical surveys are discussed, contexualized with excavation results and oral history. The efforts described here demonstrate that a great deal of information can be gathered noninvasively when geophysical methods are properly situated as part of a holistic approach to archaeological site investigation, thereby reducing the need for extensive excavation. Certain limitations associated with surveying a densely forested site are also highlighted.