Resistivity imaging survey of the Roman barrows at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, UK

Resistivity imaging was carried out on four large Roman barrows at Bartlow in Cambridgeshire. The geophysical survey formed part of a wider research project designed to record and assess the landscape context of the largest surviving Roman burial mounds in Britain. The barrows today range in height from 6.6 m to 13.2 m and their steep profile posed particular practical and modelling challenges. Data were obtained using a Campus Geopulse resistance meter with up to 50 electrodes spaced at 1 m intervals and lines up to 76 m long. A total of 24 lines was obtained. Topographic corrections were applied to the pseudosections, which were inverted using Res2Dinv and Res3Dinv. Resistivity imaging was particularly successful in identifying evidence for the antiquarian explorations of the site. Central collapse features or in‐filled tunnels image as high resistance features in all barrows and in one (Barrow IV) there is also a low resistance feature in the approximate position of a known antiquarian tunnel. Barrow VI had a thick covering of high‐resistivity that may relate to nineteenth century landscaping and reconstruction of this monument. Resistivity imaging also revealed possible evidence for ancient revetments in all four large barrows.