3 Dimensional Ground Penetrating Radar to Asses Ancient Buried Walls and Trace Active Faults at Qasr el Tila Site, Jordan

For ages, archaeologists had used shovel test grids and excavation to determine the most likely places to dig, this procedure requires a lot of work and time. In seismic hazard assessment studies, it is important to identify subsurface faults and to constrain seismic deformation parameters near surface. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) method is a nondestructive, noninvasive high-resolution geophysical mapping method favorable to picture the buried archaeological remains and delineation subsurface possible shallow walls effected by tectonic process like faults within altered environments. Processed two-dimensional radargrams were used to identify the location of some anomalies related to ancient walls. The three-dimensional model shows that the GPR anomalies are typically simpler to spot and isolate in order to make the depth and position more clear and delineate the extension of buried archaeological walls at both surveyed sites. The GPR method was able trace a possible 0.5 m deep left lateral strike slip fault affected ancient buried wall at site 2 which was impossible to mapped by 2D profiles. The inferred faultʹs direction and displacement match an exposed fault that has been mapped in the northwest corner of the western wall of the Nabataean-Roman age reservoir.