Images of buried graves in Bayat, Afyon (Turkey) from high-resolution magnetic data and their comparison with preliminary excavations

Dedemezari necropolis, the site of our study, is located in the west of Turkey near Afyon. Archaeologists think that it belongs to the Middle Bronze age. A high-resolution magnetic survey identified buried material highly accurately. In particular, anomalies, which are transformed by the analytic signal method, clarify the observed magnetic anomalies. Magnetic surveying was applied in three different areas in this study. The map of analytic signal-transformed anomalies presented good results on preliminary excavation in trenches A and B. Two types of graves are found in the study area. One is made of clay and the second is carved in the rocks. Shapes of the buried graves are mainly cylindrical and elliptical. Most of the magnetic anomalies are elliptical and reflect the shape of the buried materials. Future excavations in Dedemezari necropolis will be able to be carried out more easily due to the known locations of the buried graves. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.