Dowsing seems uniquely suited to field survey work in archaeology. Here is a short article, authored by Dr R.H.G. Whaley, describing dowsing work under taken for on behalf of the North-East Hampshire Archaeological Society. In it he addresses the problem of “false positives” in dowsing indications, and is a rare instance of “signal processing” applied to dowsing.

The aim was to test dowsing on a known site. The problem was to locate the positions of the two sides of a moat, which had long been filled in. The approximate positions of the moat’s edges had already been predetermined using a resistivity survey.   

The idea was to split the dowsers into two groups. One dowsed along a line directly over the moat, encompassing both edges of the moat. The second group dowsed a nearby area, which did not include moat. By having a number of dowsers in each group, it was possible to achieve some signal averaging over the members. Then by comparing the average dowsing reactions obtained between the two groups, statistically very significant results were obtained in the areas near the edges of the moat.

It was a simple, yet apparently powerful method. Although not suggested in the article, one might assume that the same method might be used in map dowsing work of a similar nature, with the further savings of time and energy that would bring.

The article, “Dowsing fashioned into archaeological tool”, is found here:

http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No242_1993_p372.pdf