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This paper presents the results of the first attempt to assess, identify and quantify the residual number of shell craters of World War I currently present in the Vezzena/Luserna/Lavarone Plateau, areas of Millegrobbe, Bisele and Cima Campo (Province of Trento, Italy). Historical sources report the existence of several thousand artillery explosions: therefore, a field survey or a classic photo-interpretation would be labour-intensive and highly time-consuming. For this reason, a digital terrain model (DTM) of the test-site was processed using the Sky-view Factor algorithm and was analysed with an object-based approach, which implied: (1) multiresolution segmentation; (2) classification (main features considered size, shape and colour). The automatically classified shell craters were thus verified during an in situ survey that determined the accuracy of the method in the order of 84% of the total occurrences.

This contribution proposes an evaluation of lidar and radar data processing and its potential in revealing archaeological features within a level plain environment, the southern lowland of Verona (Italy), focusing on evidences dating back to the Bronze Age. Many archaeological sites in the research area, including some of the most outstanding settlements of Terramare Culture, were identified or at least examined through aerial photo observation. Even if in several occasions modern agricultural activities contributed to the discoveries, bringing to the surface artifacts and scrapes of buried layers, this kind of impact has also been progressively deteriorating the archaeological record, hence the proto-historic landscape is now discernible through evanescent marks which cannot be always detected using customary optical sensors. Lidar and radar data analysis has then been considered as an alternative, non-invasive method of investigation on such a vast area. ARTICLE HISTORY

This contribution examines the potential of object-based image analysis (OBIA) for archaeological predictive modeling starting from elevation data, by testing a ruleset for the location of “control places” on two test areas in the Alpine environment (northern Italy). The ruleset was developed on the western Asiago Plateau (Vicenza Province, Veneto) and subsequently re-applied (semi)automatically in the Isarco Valley (South Tirol). Firstly, we considered the physiographic, climatic, and morphological characteristics of the selected areas and we applied 3 DTM processing techniques: Slope, local dominance, and solar radiation. Subsequently, we employed an object-based approach to classification. Solar radiation, local dominance, and slope were visualized as a three-layer RGB image that was segmented with the multiresolution algorithm. The classification was implemented with a ruleset that selected only image–objects with high local dominance and solar radiation, but low slope, which were considered more suitable parameters for human occupation. The classification returned five areas on the Asiago Plateau that were remotely and ground controlled, confirming anthropic exploitation covering a time span from protohistory (2nd-1st millennium BC) to the First World War. Subsequently, the same model was applied to the Isarco Valley to verify the replicability of the method. The procedure resulted in 36 potential control places which find good correspondence with the archaeological sites discovered in the area. Previously unknown contexts were further controlled using very high-resolution (VHR) aerial images and digital terrain model (DTM) data, which often suggested a possible (pre-proto)historic human frequentation. The outcomes of the analysis proved the feasibility of the approach, which can be exported and applied to similar mountainous landscapes for site predictivity analysis.

The focus of the project is to create new approaches to the study of the past through the use of innovative aero-space technologies to measure, analyse and reconstruct the ancient landscape and its remaining natural and anthropic traces. The équipe, based at the University of Padua, is constituted by archaeologists, egyptologists, mechanical and software engineers, physicists and computer scientists and is now active on the proto-historic site of Rozto in Italy. The research includes the analysis of the historical records, as old maps and aerial photographs of the past, field use of drones and the creation of a GIS platforms to collect and see the data all together.