ABSTRACT This editorial marks the transition of editorial leadership at Archaeological Prospection and outlines priorities for the journal's next phase. We review the journal's 30‐year history and assess opportunities created by the convergence of machine learning, miniaturized sensors and cloud computing. We identify two primary objectives: establishing rigorous standards for reproducibility and open science, and prioritizing submissions that demonstrate how non‐invasive methods address substantive archaeological research questions. We introduce revised publication formats and address the need to expand representation beyond the journal's historically European and North American base. These changes position Archaeological Prospection as a knowledge transfer platform for 21st‐century archaeological practice.
Underwater cultural heritage 3D prospection techniques, especially for remains that are partly buried in the ground, are only very rarely available and often can only be applied with considerable technical effort. To overcome this limitation, we evaluate a methodological adaption of widely used and available single channel parametric sediment echosounder systems. We apply electronical beam steering on a parametric sediment echosounder. Using seismic postprocessing, we highlight its capability of 3D sub-bottom imaging and heritage investigation and provide guidelines for data acquisition, feasibility and effectiveness. The approach is tested at a wreck in the Western Baltic Sea that is partly buried in the seafloor. The wreck and individual wreckage features are imaged on a submeter scale resolution. The data also reveal subtle morphological features such as surrounding scours as well as the stratigraphy of the shallow sediments. The new methodological approach successfully generates data that can be interpreted in 3D and acquired in a reasonable time (2 ha in less than 2 h), using widely available parametric echosounder systems. This makes it a powerful tool to explore and monitor underwater cultural heritage sites many of which are increasingly endangered due to rising demands for marine resources and environmental changes.
This document is a report on the field application of non-invasive geophysical and robotic prospecting methods at the submerged Neolithic site of La Marmotta (Lake Bracciano, Italy), within the LAHKE (LAke Heritage Knowledge and Exploration) project; the study focuses on the practical validation, adaptation and transfer of existing technologies in a challenging lake environment. The integrated investigations used a combination of methodologies, including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), acoustic bottom profiling, underwater ground-penetrating radar (GPR), multispectral imaging based on UAVs and robotics platforms, including a commercial remotely operating vehicle (ROV) and a specially developed autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) prototype. The objective of the study was not to discover new archaeological finds, but rather to evaluate the effectiveness of the methods used, as well as the environmental constraints present and the operational limitations encountered in real field conditions. The results indicate that ERT reveals the most reliable technique for characterizing shallow subsoil, while acoustic methods are often ineffective with algal cover, and GPR is limited by electromagnetic attenuation. This contribution provides an instructive guide, reporting both positive results and limitations learned.
The application of geophysical surveys-mainly ground-penetrating radar (GPR)-to map buried remains of monasteries and churches has been well established for decades because these methods provide valuable information on subsurface stone constructions. In recent years, 3-D-mapping technologies such as terrestrial laser scanners (TLS), mobile-mapping systems and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become more affordable. These methods can complement traditional geophysical surveys, yet the benefits of combining both data sources are still often underestimated in research projects. In this contribution, we present an integrated workflow that merges GPR data with a surveyed 3-D model of a church ruin in northwestern Bavaria (Germany). The aim is to illustrate how both methods can reinforce each other to further improve the interpretation of medieval monastic sites. Furthermore, we generated a 3D visualization of the geophysical anomalies and embedded it into the point cloud. This enhances the perception of the interaction between upstanding and subsurface features, which is especially helpful on difficult terrain. Such three-dimensional interpretation attempts are still rarely exploited; they are usually applied only as semiautomated interpretation methods without integration with other data sources. Beyond the archaeological analysis of the site's development, we address several methodological questions concerning the advantages and disadvantages of different remote-sensing techniques for mapping historic buildings. We also present a statistical evaluation of the accuracy of various UAV models and the mobile mapping laser scanner used in the study.
This study presents a multi-method non-invasive investigation of an approximately 4-ha area associated with the long-occupied coastal settlement of Rocavecchia (Apulia, southern Italy), situated between the prehistoric fortified peninsula and the Hellenistic-Messapian walls. Two research questions guided the analysis: First, under what circumstances does the combination of remote sensing, geomagnetic survey and fieldwalking enable reliable chronological attribution of subsurface features? Second, how does the joint interpretation of independent datasets contribute to reconstructing settlement dynamics beyond the known fortifications? To address these questions, multi-temporal aerial and satellite imagery, vertical gradient geomagnetic prospection and systematic fieldwalking were integrated within a GIS framework. A feature-based interpretative workflow was developed to formalise the logic connecting geomagnetic anomalies, surface artefact distributions and imagery-derived evidence, making explicit both the correspondence criteria and the degree of residual uncertainty for each classified feature. The results show that multi-method integration reduces interpretive ambiguity in a complex palimpsest landscape but does not resolve it univocally: Chronological attribution remains interpretative for most anomalies, and its reliability scales with the degree of convergence between independent datasets. The feature-based workflow developed here demonstrates that formalising the interpretive logic, rather than relying on implicit visual synthesis, allows uncertainty to remain visible and spatially localised where datasets do not converge. The study further indicates that occupation extended into the extra-mural zone across multiple phases, while defining the conditions under which such inferences can be sustained from non-invasive proxies alone.
New Hope Cemetery, located in Uniontown, Alabama, has served as a burial site since 1858. Most burials lack gravestones or other identifying markers. In response to concerns from Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, a local citizens' organization from Uniontown, and other community leaders two ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys were conducted at the cemetery in the summers of 2021 and 2022 to identify unmarked burials. GPR was chosen over other techniques due to its noninvasive nature, cost-effectiveness, and previous success in detecting burials. Thunderstorms during the 2021 survey left large sections of the cemetery waterlogged, raising questions about the quality of the data collected. To assess the influence of water saturation on GPR data, one of the survey grids was resurveyed under dry conditions in 2022. The comparison revealed that not only was the water table higher in 2021, but only one burial was visible in vertical depth sections, compared with the eight burials identified in the same grid during dry weather conditions in 2022. During the 2022 survey, a total of 24 features with radar signals similar to burials were identified in the cemetery. Signals from 12 features were consistent with calibrated radar signals of burials with overlying grave ledgers, while the remaining 12 features are believed to represent burials without overlying ledgers. This study highlights the method's utility for locating unmarked burials and demonstrates how environmental conditions, such as rainfall, affect GPR data. Furthermore, our work underscores the value of community-driven archaeology in documenting African American historical cemeteries and preserving cultural memory through noninvasive methods.
The detection of buried or obscured archaeological features remains a central challenge in landscape archaeology, particularly in the irrigated floodplains of Mesopotamia where levees and canals formed the basis of complex agrarian systems. This study presents a deep learning-based approach for the large-scale, automated detection of ancient levees in central Iraq, integrating big multitemporal and multisource satellite datasets with advanced instance segmentation models. Datasets were assembled from multitemporal Landsat 5, Sentinel-1 SAR, Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery and the TanDEM-X Edited DSM, combined with vegetation and moisture indices, PCA reductions of seasonal variability and Multi-Scale Relief Model (MSRM) outputs. Training labels were generated through both threshold-based automatic extraction and detailed manual digitization. Three architectures-U-Net, Attention U-Net and Swin UNETR-were evaluated on datasets containing 53, 48 and 36 bands. Results demonstrate that Swin UNETR consistently outperformed other models, particularly when trained on the 48-band dataset with manually digitized levees. Unlike wide automatic annotations, which produced irregular and noisy patches, thin manual annotations yielded clearer, more linear predictions. Post-processing further refined the outputs, enabling the model to achieve pixel-level precision of 0.6555 and recall of 0.5107 and vector-level precision of 0.7554 and recall of 0.7743 after additional post-processing. Although pixel-level metric scores remain modest, reflecting the irregularity of the archaeological features, the model successfully predicted levee networks across similar to 31 250 km(2), extending from the Ba'qubah region to Ad Rumaythah, with detected similar to 13 680 km potential levees located outside the dataset (20 660 km(2)). Comparative analysis with independent palaeochannel reconstructions confirmed that the model identified many of the most prominent irrigation features while avoiding misclassification of modern infrastructure. The results of the Monte Carlo simulation indicate a clear relationship between identified levees and archaeological sites of different periods, particularly Old Babylonian, Parthian, Sasanian and Early Islamic. The results highlight both the challenges and promise of deep learning in archaeological remote sensing. Automated predictions cannot yet replace interpretative digitization, but they provide reproducible, standardized and scalable outputs that can accelerate archaeological mapping and support regional-scale analysis. By leveraging multitemporal, multisource datasets and advanced AI architectures, this study demonstrates a pathway towards reconstructing irrigation systems of different historical periods and landscapes. The approach opens new possibilities for documenting, preserving and interpreting water management legacies in some of the world's most significant ancient landscapes.
This study presents a comprehensive geospatial framework for assessing the vulnerability of prehistoric archaeological landscapes in Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia. Utilizing a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach integrated with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and GIS, the research quantifies the spatial conflict between modern developmental expansion and ancient heritage. A total of 3112 archaeological features, including Mustatils, Desert Kites and Funerary Avenues, were analysed against six primary environmental and anthropogenic risk drivers: slope, elevation, soil type, distance to wadis, distance to vegetation and distance to infrastructure. The results reveal a critical conservation crisis, with 2076 features (66.7%) situated within High- and Very High-risk zones. Statistical validation through Getis-Ord Gi hotspot analysis and proximity metrics confirms that anthropogenic pressures, particularly road networks, represent the most proximal threat, with a median distance of only 385.3 m to high-risk sites. The findings demonstrate that modern infrastructure is disproportionately encroaching upon ancient funerary corridors, outpacing natural erosion processes. This study provides a spatial risk exposure mapping tool for heritage managers, emphasizing the urgent need to integrate archaeological risk models into national urban planning to safeguard Arabia's prehistoric legacy amidst rapid regional development.
LiDAR has transformed archaeological prospection by enabling the detection of sites and landscape features at unprecedented scales, particularly in environments with heavy vegetation. However, its methodological and analytical application at the excavation scale remains underdeveloped. In this paper, we develop a prospection-oriented workflow that implements UAV-mounted LiDAR to recontextualize legacy excavations within modern geospatial frameworks. We apply this approach at Saqsaywaman, the monumental Inka acropolis overlooking Cusco, Peru, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with nearly a century of intermittent excavation and uneven documentation. Our LiDAR survey covered approximately 69 ha, producing high-density point clouds and derived terrain models capable of detecting subtle microtopographic signatures of past excavations obscured by vegetation and erosion. These LiDAR-derived features were systematically compared with historic maps, archival aerial imagery, excavation reports and oral histories, and were verified through ground-truthing. The analysis allowed us to relocate, with submeter spatial accuracy, over two dozen undocumented or poorly documented excavation trenches. Beyond preventing redundant excavation, this integration of LiDAR and archival data enabled the recontextualization of legacy stratigraphic data, radiocarbon dates and architectural descriptions alongside new excavations. At Saqsaywaman, the approach clarified preimperial occupation sequences in the Cruz Moqo sector and identified previously unrecognized architectural and hydraulic features. More broadly, the study demonstrates how LiDAR can function as a form of archaeological prospection focused on past research activity, extending the scope of prospection beyond site detection to the recovery and synthesis of legacy excavation data. Many major archaeological sites have been excavated repeatedly over decades, leaving behind fragmented records, imprecise maps and unpublished reports that complicate interpretation and risk redundant or destructive re-excavation. Our workflow offers a replicable model for cumulative and sustainable archaeological research at sites worldwide.
Medieval and early modern drowned villages in the intertidal zone of the Scheldt estuary (the Netherlands) constitute intriguing yet largely understudied components of north-western Europe's underwater cultural heritage. Despite their high archaeological potential as time capsules of past settlement landscapes, research has remained limited due to the lack of survey methodologies adapted to dynamic intertidal environments. In this study, we present the first results of a non-invasive prospection approach to the lost medieval village of Tolsende (Zeeland, the Netherlands), which drowned in the storm floods of 1530 and 1532 ce. Using UAV photogrammetry, manual and UAV-based magnetometry at low tide and multichannel sediment sonar at high tide, we present the first results of the central area of the village. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential applicability of this approach for exploring and mapping both exposed and buried archaeological remains across extensive intertidal areas. Photogrammetry rapidly documented the exposed remains and enables detailed erosion monitoring in the future. Magnetometry revealed buried structures of a church alongside smaller residential features and associated settlement infrastructure. However, UAV magnetometry failed to resolve the more subtle features that were detected by terrestrial surveys. Finally, the sediment-sonar profiles provided insights into the vertical development of these features, as well as sedimentation and infill patterns, thereby adding essential stratigraphic context to the integrated interpretation of the survey data. Together, these results substantially advance current knowledge of the village centre and outline clear directions for future fieldwork. Nevertheless, these first results also warn that off-the-shelf methods require adaptations to the specific challenges of the intertidal environment and the nature of this preserved settlement landscape.
In the years 2024-2025, noninvasive geophysical surveys were carried out inside and in the courtyard of the royal palace in & Lstrok;obz & oacute;w, Krakow (Poland), using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). In addition, laser scanners (LIDAR and TLS) were used. The aim of the conducted research was to determine and clearly describe the location and extent of the remains of Casimir the Great's fortalicium, that is, the original and oldest building located in this place, and the remains of the royal palace, including the identification of the palace wings that have not been preserved (the western and the northern one) in contrast to the preserved and well-identified southern wing and the fragmentarily preserved eastern wing. The archaeological research conducted on the site of a defensive tower, as indicated by iconographic sources in 2014, confirmed its authenticity based on the uncovered fragment of a Gothic wall. The recently conducted GPR surveys inside the south-eastern wing of the palace have revealed the occurrence of anomalies that may be related to a subsequent Gothic building. On the other hand, surveys carried out in the palace courtyard using the above-mentioned methods enabled us to identify the remaining walls of the palace, which in turn allowed us to determine the extent of the entire residential building. Using the ERT method complemented with the GPR method, it was also possible to determine the course of the mediaeval moat and the irrigation canal supplying the royal gardens with water.
Ancient Olympia was one of the most important sanctuaries and the venue for the Olympic Games in Greek and Roman times. Its remains are located in the Olympia Terrace (Peloponnese, Greece) at the present-day confluence of the rivers Alpheios and Kladeos at the base of Mount Kronos. Olympia is situated on the northern fringe of the Makrisia Basin. Due to its position between the two rivers, the sanctuary was covered by several metres of sediment (mainly silt and sand) after its abandonment, which complicates exploration and excavation. This raised the following questions: (i) Are there more buildings connected to the Sanctuary than previously known from excavations, and if so, (ii) how and (iii) with what resolution can such deeply buried structures be detected using geophysics? During geophysical and geoarchaeological campaigns in 2021 and 2023, an integrated multi-method approach containing electromagnetic induction, electrical resistivity tomography and shear-wave seismic measurements, aiming specifically at looking below the thick sediment cover, was performed between the excavated parts of the sanctuary and the southwestern edge of the original Olympia Terrace. A multi-phase filter was developed to separate the electromagnetic response signal of the Mediterranean olive grove from subsurface features. The chosen prospection approach was evaluated in terms of its resolution and ability to image ancient building remains at depths, that cannot be reached by commonly used geophysical methods in archaeological prospection. The integrative analysis of the results, in addition to a large-scale inversion of the electromagnetic induction data, establishes more detailed insight in a recently described building structure and the course of the levee belonging to an embankment of the Kladeos river and containing the Kladeos wall.
Below the classical fortress of Samikon at the coast of the western Peloponnese, ancient writer Strabo mentioned a sanctuary of Poseidon which served as the centre of the religious association of the Triphylian cities. In this paper, we describe the discovery and investigation of a building structure by means of geophysical and geoarchaeological methods in a near coastal, lagoonal surrounding, posing questions about its connection to the sanctuary and about its abandonment. The paper emphasizes the uniqueness of the site, which on the one hand was clearly described by the ancient historian Strabo, thereby limiting its possible location. On the other hand, much of the area is overgrown, inaccessible and in a swampy lagoonal environment, hampering common geophysical prospection approaches. This leads to another question, namely, how the sanctuary can be located through prospection and which integrated methodologies are appropriate for such environments. The performance of the presented integrated approach is assessed using the discovered building as a case study. The architectural structure of the building visualized by geophysical prospection and subsequent archaeological excavations let us conclude that the building is a 28 m by 10 m Archaic sacred building. It was imaged using magnetic gradiometry with additional magnetization inversion, while its underlying stratigraphy was investigated by electromagnetic induction and electrical resistivity tomography, combined with geoarchaeological investigations. The results show that the temple was founded on sand embedded in lagoonal and swampy deposits being influenced by high-energy flooding events. The presented approach, which combines rapid EMI mapping and depth sensing of stratigraphic features, shown here to be effective to appropriate depths in reasonable resolution in comparison with ERT, with coring and small-scale near-surface prospection, provides a feasible and promising approach for wetland prospection not only for the presented case study but for the wider coastal region.
Burial mounds are key elements of Mediterranean funerary landscapes, but in intensively cultivated coastal plains their low-relief expression is easily obscured by ploughing, levelling and rapidly changing surface conditions, making single-date observations unreliable. This study develops a multiepoch Sentinel-1 TOPS InSAR approach for repeatable mound-domain recognition and disturbance-hotspot screening at the Manicalunga-Timpone Nero necropolis near Selinunte, south-western Sicily, Italy. Four C-band interferometric epochs acquired between 2014 and 2025, spanning Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B and Sentinel-1C, were analysed within DEM-based visibility masks so that interpretation was restricted to coherence-supported areas, while decorrelated sectors and layover/shadow zones were retained as explicit observational limits. Wrapped-phase variability, coherence and terrain context were integrated into a covariance-aware proxy, re-expressed as an anchored ordinal ranking and fused across epochs to emphasise persistent rather than one-off anomalies. The resulting multiepoch mean proxy, integrated with supervised machine-learning-based pixel classification (ilastik) to generate probability maps, delineates recurrent mound-domain signatures and identifies deformation/disturbance hotspots both inside and outside the legally protected archaeological perimeter. The results show that a conservative, coherence-gated InSAR workflow can separate persistent high-rank anomaly structures from condition-dependent noise in cultivated heritage landscapes. The approach also provides a transferable screening framework for archaeological prospection and conservation management, supporting targeted field verification, explicit reporting of non-observable sectors and more robust prioritisation of monitoring actions.
This article presents the methodology, results and interpretation of ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and archaeological ground-truthing conducted in the Upper Park area of Robert H. Treman State Park, near Ithaca, New York, in 2022 and 2023. The study aimed to locate the buried remains of a carding and fulling mill that operated between the early and mid-19th centuries in the hamlet of Enfield Falls. By 1920, most of the properties in the hamlet had been purchased by Robert H. Treman and donated to New York State Parks. Subsequently, the landscape was transformed into a park first by park staff and then by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Our study, therefore, addressed two questions: (1) Could archaeological excavations guided by archival and GPR data help establish the location of the 19th-century carding mill? and (2) how do our findings help refine interpretations of the park's history? GPR survey followed by archaeological excavation revealed the presence of a retaining wall constructed by Company 1265 of the CCC between 1933 and 1935. The wall was buried under a layer of sediment when floodwaters inundated the park on 12 July 1935. Despite the absence of any remnants from the carding and fulling mill, this study uncovered new evidence highlighting the CCC's role in transforming a hamlet into a state park. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining archival and GPR data to cost-effectively and non-invasively identify potential archaeological excavation sites. Furthermore, our work serves as a case study for archaeologists, conservationists and heritage managers seeking to investigate the anthropogenic factors that contribute to the development of 'natural' park sites in the United States and elsewhere.
This paper presents the results of an integrated archaeological and geophysical investigation conducted between 2018 and 2024 at the newly discovered Picenian and Roman necropolis of Contrada Nevola (Corinaldo, Marche, Central Italy), identified in the framework of development-led archaeology. The research strategy combined aerial photography, systematic field-walking, automatic resistivity profiling (ARP) and magnetometry, followed by targeted excavation guided by the outcomes of non-invasive surveys. The integrated analysis revealed a complex, multi-period funerary landscape, including four large Orientalising circular monuments dated to the late 7th century bce and a later Roman cemetery (2nd-4th century ce) partially superimposed on the earlier structures. Geophysical data proved crucial for defining the geometry, state of preservation and internal organisation of the circular monuments associated with the Picenian phase, as well as for identifying focal anomalies interpreted as burial deposits and ritual features within a diachronic perspective. The complete excavation of one of the earliest monuments (Circle 2) in 2024 confirmed the predictive value of the geophysical surveys, leading to the discovery of an exceptionally rich Picenian princely tomb containing almost 200 artefacts, including a two-wheeled chariot, weapons, bronze vessels and imported objects. Ritual pits identified through geophysics and excavation indicate a prolonged ceremonial use of the enclosed space. This case study highlights the methodological potential of integrating remote sensing, geophysics and excavation in funerary contexts, demonstrating how non-invasive techniques can effectively guide excavation strategies and enhance archaeological interpretation.
This study aimed to investigate and characterize the subsurface geophysical signatures associated with 20th-century interwar housing developments in the Ko & lstrok;o district of Warsaw, Poland, to provide new insights into the area's social history. These were largely destroyed during World War II and were part of a broader national initiative to address homelessness and the severe housing shortages at the time. The study methods used archival records and remote sensing data to identify the survey site, which was a current public park, where traditional excavation was not feasible. A phased geophysical site survey was then used to create a frequency domain electromagnetic method (FDEM) grid, providing key information on spatial patterns of geophysical response potentially associated with building foundations and related infrastructure. Secondary Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey profiles then provided higher resolution information on foundation positions, although the data were geophysically noisy. This non-invasive approach supports the preservation of the site's integrity and deepens the understanding of Warsaw's urban history, contributing valuable information for future archaeological and historical studies. The findings highlight the effectiveness of combining multiple datasets in non-invasive archaeological research, particularly in urban settings where traditional excavation is not feasible.
Preliminary geophysical investigations are a cost-effective and efficient way to screen archaeological sites and locate buried structures. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is one of the most widely used methods for archaeological prospection, but in some sites, it cannot be employed effectively due to the presence of clay or other electrically conductive materials, which strongly attenuate the electromagnetic signal, or due to bumped terrain, which demands rigorous signal analysis. Alternatively, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) can be adopted in these situations. However, ERT is not as frequently adopted as GPR for archaeological purposes because it is more time and cost consuming and, generally, has worse resolution. In this study, we aim to test a full-3D ERT approach to improve the imaging quality of ERT surveys for archaeological prospections. We develop specific survey strategies, including a custom open-source quadrupole sequence generator, studied for achieving high sensitivity to archaeological remains within the first metres of subsoil. We performed a test survey on a well-known archaeological site (the Roman town of Augusta Bagiennorum, NW Italy) and compared the results with a state-of-the-art multichannel GPR acquisition. The results showed that both GPR and ERT equally located the outer and inner walls of a complex Roman residential building. Moreover, the ERT could locate two targets, barely visible in the GPR survey, with the antenna used. We also compared the results of our full-3D ERT approach to a more common quasi-3D approach. We found that the full-3D approach overcomes the directional bias found in our quasi-3D acquisitions and provides a more accurate subsurface resistivity model. This methodology is ready to be employed in other archaeological sites and, differently from GPR, can easily operate on bumped terrain, in the presence of clay, and potentially reach greater investigation depths.
In Upper Mesopotamia, the transition from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) to Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period, ca. 10 800-10 600 cal. BP, is marked by a series of changes in chipped stone industries, architectural forms, symbolic objects, regional distribution of settlements and long-distance exchange networks among others. These shifts may indicate rapid social transformations occurring in this time period. Since settlement size and layout can serve as proxies for population scale and social structure, methodologies capable of capturing entire site plans are critical. Geophysical prospection provides an efficient means for surveying entire archaeological sites, making it particularly suitable for studying settlement size and layout. However, geophysical prospection of Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in Upper Mesopotamia has rarely been published. This study conducted comprehensive geophysical investigations, including topographic survey, magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar, covering the entire mound of Harbetsuvan Tepesi, a recently discovered small-scale (approximately 5900 m2) Early PPNB site in southeastern Anatolia. This represents the first comprehensive geophysical survey covering the entire extent of a PPNB site in this region. The data revealed a cluster of rectangular rooms densely concentrated near the mound's centre, with no indication of large open spaces or significantly oversized monumental structures. This settlement layout differs from larger contemporary sites in the region, where large circular monumental buildings have been exposed alongside clustered small dwellings. This settlement layout at Harbetsuvan Tepesi provides an example of the social structure of small settlements and makes a contribution to understanding the inter-site regional social hierarchies and settlement diversity during the PPNA-PPNB transition.
