Aerial archaeology
[6]: 66 In America, a man named James Wallace Black, in 1860, became the first person to successfully take aerial photographs from a hot air balloon over Boston.
In the years leading up to the First World War, several early attempts were made to use aerial photography for archaeological purposes, though they often faced significant technical and practical challenges.
The use of specialized reconnaissance aircraft, which were equipped with advanced cameras, allowed for the collection of high-resolution images on a scale and precision previously unattainable.
The thousands of aerial photographs captured over Europe revealed previously unknown archaeological features, such as crop marks, that were visible from the air but invisible from the ground.
Crawford recognized the potential of aerial photography for archaeological research and conducted extensive surveys of the English landscape from the air.
His work in Britain and the Middle East demonstrated that aerial surveys could reveal features such as crop marks and soil disturbances that were undetectable from ground level.
Major G. W. G. Allen was an English engineer who, after learning of the work Crawford was doing, he was inspired to use his own airplane around Southern England, taking photographs of the landscape.
His work in documenting prehistoric landscapes and Roman roads in England marked a significant advancement in the application of aerial methods for archaeological surveys.
The introduction of infrared photography and multispectral imaging enabled archaeologists to detect subtle variations in vegetation and soil, allowing for the identification of buried structures that would otherwise remain hidden.
In the post-war period, aerial archaeology expanded beyond Europe, becoming an invaluable tool for researchers working in regions with vast and difficult-to-access landscapes, such as the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
In these areas, aerial surveys uncovered ancient civilizations and revealed the locations of significant archaeological sites, many of which had been previously unknown.
With the ability to capture high-resolution images and access areas that are otherwise difficult to reach, drones have become an essential tool for modern archaeological surveys.
These include: By carefully analyzing aerial images, archaeologists can identify, document, and interpret a wide range of archaeological features, providing valuable insights into past human activities and settlement patterns.
For a site to be detected by a remote sensing method, one would expect alterations to the soil or subsoil e.g. ditches, pits, banks, mounds, walls etc.
Renfrew and Bahn describes the techniques used as scanners that "record the intensity of reflected light and the infrared radiation from the earth surface and convert these electronically into photographic images.
Richard Adams used SLAR to identify a matrix of possible Mayan water irrigation systems underneath the dense rainforest from a NASA aircraft.
By emitting thousands of pulses per second and recording the time it takes for them to return to the sensor, LiDAR creates highly accurate 3D models of the Earth's surface.
[15] Satellite imagery offers a broad perspective, covering vast areas and providing valuable data for regional studies and landscape archaeology.
This platform includes a range of different satellite and aerial images, such as the NASA LANDSAT series, Ikonos, QuickBird, GeoEye alongside more.
The raw data collected through aerial photography and remote sensing requires careful processing and interpretation to extract meaningful archaeological information.
Archaeologists Arlen and Diane Chase, from the University of Central Florida, worked for 25 years in the dense tropical rainforest, managing to map 23 km2 (8.9 sq mi) of settlement.
The Homs projects combined the usage of CORONA, LANDSAT, IKONOS, and Quickbird imagery to observe "long-term human and environmental interactions"[14] and, more broadly, to assess the landscape, over an area of 630 quare kilometres that had no prior database of remains or aerial photography.
Through fieldwork, the different applications and abilities of these satellite imagery techniques were revealed, highlighting the importance of using multiple methods of archaeological investigation together.
The LANDSAT imagery fell short when used for site detection and mapping, due to its lower resolution compared to Quickbird and IKONOS, but was most successful at characterizing the environment and visualizing rates of change.
[14] Through interpretation archaeological sites were identified as tells with low-relief soil markings, "with remains ranging from small walls less than 1 m wide to large multi period settlements.
