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Introduction to Geophysics | Masterclass (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-20 19:00:11
Imported:
2026-02

Content

We’re thrilled to launch the very first episode of our brand-new Time Team Masterclass series!

Join Jimmy Adcock as he kicks things off with an introduction to geophysics, the first of four weekly episodes leading up to our special Brancaster Geophysics Special.

In this episode, we discover how geophysics allows archaeologists to see the bigger picture, mapping entire landscapes quickly and efficiently, without lifting a single trowel. From magnetometry and resistance surveys to cutting-edge Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), we explore the “Holy Trinity” of geophysical techniques and reveal how they’ve evolved over the years on Time Team.

Files

Introduction to Geophysics | Masterclass

We’re thrilled to launch the very first episode of our brand-new Time Team Masterclass series! Join Jimmy Adcock as he kicks things off with an introduction to geophysics, the first of four weekly episodes leading up to our special Brancaster Geophysics Special. In this episode, we discover how geophysics allows archaeologists to see the bigger picture, mapping entire landscapes quickly and efficiently, without lifting a single trowel. From magnetometry and resistance surveys to cutting-edge Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), we explore the “Holy Trinity” of geophysical techniques and reveal how they’ve evolved over the years on Time Team. ** MERCHANDISE ** Time Team's Official Shop: https://shop.timeteamdigital.com/ Website: https://www.timeteamdigital.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timeteamofficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timeteamofficial X: https://x.com/thetimeteam Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialtimeteam

Comments

Kerry Hennigan

It's great to have the various methods clearly explained. Thanks Jimmy.

Denise Smith

I'm looking forward the tutorials.

Sarah Thacker-Pugsley

Thanks Jimmy - always exciting to see what the Geo-Physics come up with

Wessex-Wyvern

Great stuff. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

John Anderson

We got set up at work (geotech) to do shear wave velocity studies (ReMi method) it's one of those black magic things.

Peter Farrington

Many thanks Jimmy, you have cleared a lot of the fog from the geophysics world.

KaiAy

It's amazing how the magic of geophys has progressed. What old sites might Time Team be tempted to revisit with geophys's latest capabilities? I'm really looking forward to future videos in this series. Thanks Jimmy & Time Team!

Anja Adam

This was very interesting. Thanks Jimmy.

Anders Wegge Keller

Isn't the recent announcement of a new Ness of Brodgar dig based on a renewed GRP survey?

Bob Greaves

Very interesting. Amateur question: Is it not possible to design a device which measures Mag, Res and GPR (or at least Mag and GPR) at the same time, or would the sensors interfere with each other?

Gill Sawyer

Excellent explanations of the different techniques. So eloquent, thanks.

Colin Parrish

Interesting - looking forward to seeing - always wondered what they are doing when they walk around the field with the different devices...

Leanne

More, please!

Leitchy

Thanks Jimmy; I enjoyed that a lot. Very clearly explained.

Elizabeth Nickless

I love geophys stuff. I work in imaging with spectroscopy so it aligns with my interests and is what I would be keen to do if I was an archeologist. Thanks..looking forward to the rest of the masterclasses and the results from the Brancaster mapping. It has been really interesting to see the development of the geophys techniques over the years, a great field to be working in as a career.

Kate

Do I remember you can't use any of these to find bones, but GPR and RES might find grave cuts? What will recognize graves or cemeteries? I've always loved geophys. Thanks.

Barry Twycross

Loved the video. Brilliant explanation of why you did what you did. More like this please.

Wendy Sengpiehl

Thank you! Looking forward to the next one!

Dario

Great masterclass. Really clear, easy to follow and informative. Well done Jimmy.

Michael Crouch

What an excellent masterclass, very engaging presentation.

Grampus854

An excellent introduction to this topic, brief and clear. I am looking forward to more like this.

James Ingram

Jimmy very clear - yet again!

KaiAy

Yes indeed. That will be fascinating to see!

Fiona D

I just watched a program on Swedish public TV (SVT) about a search for a mass grave of accordions (a little hard to explain in brief). Anyway, legend has it they were buried sometime in the 1960s to 1980s. No good historical records, people's memories conflict, so they decided they would just have to dig. Under a parking lot. And they were just guessing where to put their trench! Ask some archaeologists, please! Geophysics! Didn't the Swedes invent some great GPR machine? SVT needs to see this Masterclass! SVT program at: https://www.svtplay.se/video/jQ7Ew6p/dragspelsgraven-i-alvdalen for the curious.

David Alan Jones

This may be out of context. but one can think of Lidar as giving a wider picture.

Chef Tess

Great class. My question is haven't metal detectors become the newer go to tool for magnetometry? Instead of using magnetometry for large land surveys, small, handheld metal detectors used to locate individual finds. I saw them being used widely on the Sutton Hoo series.

Casey Frend

Thank you! Looking forward to the next one 😊

Jennifer Thompson

Thank you for explaining the advance in technology - and metal detectors? Or are they designed for locating individual objects?

Nathan Wrigley

Really enjoyed that explanation. Thank you for explaining some of the things that are not really needed within Time Team episodes, but certainly add significant context.

Jimmy Adcock

I work with seismic methods in the day job - love them. But they're still to find a regular outlet in archaeology 🙂

Jimmy Adcock

You're right - mag and GPR would be the most obvious pair but, yes, it's tricky to get them on the same rig without upsetting the mag part. There have been a few attempts to mobilise res but the best results have usually come from the more 'manual' approach.

Jimmy Adcock

Correct! Despite what sometimes crops up in popular crime dramas (*cough cough* CSI *cough cough*) we can't directly detect bones. Grave cuts can show up but it's hugely dependent on the age, the soils, and what's happened on site since the burials. Generally, GPR is the most reliable for grave cuts but specific sites require the right choice of method to pick up the contrast, if there is any contrast at all.

Jimmy Adcock

Good question... They're not really a "one or the other" pair of methods. Metal detectors are great for individual metallic artefacts (or groups of) and whether they're iron-based (ferrous) or non-ferrous. Mag can show us landscape features, ditches, pits, middens, hearths, kilns, demolition spreads of tile and brick, in fact, a whole host of Archaeological features that can't be mapped with metal detectors. On an Anglo Saxon site (like Sutton Hoo) the magnetic responses can be quite ephemeral but, with a lot of metal grave goods possible, metal detecting can be incredibly useful to help characterise the site.

Jimmy Adcock

Absolutely - metal detectors for locating individual (or clusters of) metallic artefacts, and mag for mapping the surrounding archaeological features. Can be quite effective complementary methods and metal detecting is typically treated as a separate specialism, even if the underlying technology is geophysical.

Jimmy Adcock

It really can! And the scale of what we can look at goes up another magnitude; so you could, for example, use lidar to target your geophysics, to target your excavation. But it is still limited to surface expressions of archaeology. But that opportunity to combine methods is what often brings the magic - draping geophysical results over lidar will very often give additional insights.

Jimmy Adcock

Yes - since around 2010 we'd been using the Swedish GPR systems on Time Team, and now I work for the Swedes. I will pass this link to my colleagues - would have been a fun target to try for!

Chef Tess

I have another question. We can all see how far geophys has come since the 1990's. Is there some new method, system, or new technology possibilities that excite you?

Fiona D

Thanks! Tack så mycket!

John Anderson

We looked at renting from your company before we bought the one we did.

Felicity Fields

Fantastic! Loved this and looking forward to the rest of the classes

Jimmy Adcock

With existing methods, improving sensitivity & denser sampling only goes so far, we can end up measuring natural variation as much as archaeological features and we bump up against the laws of physics. That makes new approaches exciting, perhaps like Microgravity. Quantum gravimeters and mobile survey could make mapping subtle density contrasts possible in the future, potentially revealing pits, ditches, burials, or deep voids where other geophysical contrasts are weak or, for example, where GPR performs poorly. In the nearer term, I'd like to see what else we can do with the data itself. Advances in AI may allow us to interrogate datasets in new ways - looking at different aspects of the data, combinations of data, or detecting marginal correlations that have previously gone unexplored simply because the time and resources weren’t available.

Mary Lu

This is a great explanation of the subject. Thank you!

Randolph

Very good info! Cleared up some rough edges for me, "Pun intended"LoL

Laura Phaneuf

For skeletons, you hear people say that they have found x number of bodies in an area without any digging. I understand from watching that you can tell a pit or disturbance but has the technology improved to the point that you can say 25 burial plots in this field for certain if you are looking for unmarked graves?

Laura Phaneuf

I watched an old episode of Bones where they showed the gpr plot and you could make out the individual bones in a skeleton

Jimmy Adcock

Any geophysical method relies on contrast between target and surroundings and the target being of a detectable scale. Bones generally aren't big enough to provide the contrast, and the grave cut is normally backfilled with the same soil as the surroundings so the contrast is small. But, depending on the type of soil, the environmental conditions during survey, the age of the burials, and the type of burial, it can be possible to detect grave cuts. But they are a really tough target! And, even on a site where you do detect them, there is normally an assumption that you still won't be seeing all of them.

Elaine P

This was fantastic, Jimmy is a great teacher. A very good overview, 3 lightbulbs went off in my brain! Now I want to rewatch all the TT episodes as I'll better understand all the scans. Very much looking forward to the next episodes.

Judy Parkinson

I received an email about the 2nd class in this series and discovered that I would have to upgrade my patreon membership to view it. As a senior who loves Time Team, I am disturbed that my original membership didn't include access to the 2nd in the series. People who live on a very fixed income cannot afford all these upgrades to view content for a show they love and are supporting to the best of their ability. My Patreon membership will not be renewing this year, it's not worth it if I have to upgrade to watch things thta should be included.

David J. Neivandt

I think the other big advantage of geophysical techniques is that they are non-invasive. As we've heard many times on TT, the act of physically digging a site effectively destroys it. Geophys. and LIDAR etc. give extremely valuable data while preserving the archeology.