Cropmarks are a major factor in the effectiveness of traditional aerial archaeology. Identified almost 100 years ago, the positive and negative features shown by cropmarks are now well understood, as are the role of the different cultivated plants and the importance of precipitation and other elements of the physical environment. Generations of aerial archaeologists are in possession of empirical knowledge, allowing them to find as many cropmarks as possible every year. However, the essential analyses belong mostly to the predigital period, while the significant growth of datasets in the last 30 years could open a new chapter. This is especially true in the case of Hungary, as scholars believe it to be one of the most promising cropmark areas in Europe. The characteristics of soil formed of Late Quaternary alluvial sediments are intimately connected to the young geological/geomorphological background. The predictive soil maps elaborated within the framework of renewed data on Hungarian soil spatial infrastructure use legacy, together with recent remote sensing imagery. Based on the results from three study areas investigated, analyses using statistical methods (the Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Random Forest tests) showed a different relative predominance of pedological variables in each study area. The geomorphological differences between the study areas explain these variations satisfactorily.

The Early Iron Age site complex of Süttő is located on a loess plateau on the right bank of the Danube. After a long history of research of the Early Iron Age fortified settlement, tumulus groups and flat cemetery, between 2013–2017, some pioneer investigations were carried out using non-invasive methods. In 2018, members of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University and the Archaeological Heritage Protection Directorate of the Hungarian National Museum conducted an interdisciplinary research project (archaeological excavation, geophysical measurements, metal detecting survey, systematic field walking, geological drilling) on the plateau in the framework of the Interreg DTP Iron Age Danube project. As a result of intensive research, it became clear that aside from the Early Iron Age necropolis, the eastern part of the plateau was used as a burial site in the Early Bronze Age, as a settlement in the Late Bronze Age, and we must consider the existence of a Late Iron Age settlement in this area as well.

The present article introduces a recently started project which aims at studying the topography of the canabae and legionary fortress of Brigetio using non-destructive methods such as aerial photography and different geophysical surveys. After a brief summary of earlier research, the methods and results of the topographical work carried out in 2014 will be discussed below.

The staff of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the Eötvös Loránd University carried out rescue excavationsprior to the construction of the M4 motorway in Hajdú-Bihar County in 2015. Within the frames of this project theopportunity was given to unearth approximately 5 hectares of a multi-period site east of the city of Berettyóújfalu.Before this excavation systematic field surveys had been carried out on the same site in a 24 hectares large area inthe frames of an OTKA (Hungarian Scientific Researh Fund) project in 2013. Thus there is a possibility to compare thedata of the fieldwalking with the results of the excavation.

The paper presents the most important results of the Romanian–Hungarian aerial archaeological project, i.e.the intensive topographic research of the Middle Mureş Valley. Situated between the mountains, in the widen-ing valley section various aged/high terraces were formed, providing proper conditions for human habitats.Beside the already documented stone buildings from the Roman period, observed due to the negative cropmarks – especially in 2013 – positive crop marks of settlements datable before and after the Roman periodwere observed in large variety. The simultaneous examination of the geomorphological conditions underlinedsignificant differences between the prehistoric and Roman strategies of settlement establishment.