Aerial photography and remote sensing has been carried out in the past by numerous different platforms, utilizing imaging from across the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum to gain information about the earth. These techniques have additionally been found effective when locating mass graves and single clandestine graves created by perpetrators when concealing homicide victims. Applications for performing aerial photography and remote sensing are costly and therefore usually overlooked by police investigators, resulting in employing more contemporary geophysical methods for locating burials. Recent advances in technology however have seen the development of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for aerial photography which can be executed at low altitude and controlled remotely from the surface. This development has introduced low-cost approaches in detecting surface features, commonly utilised in the archaeological field for its accuracy in detecting anomalies, particularly when using near-infrared (NIR) photography. NIR aerial images have been shown to expose cropmarks of historical value which are unnoticeable in conventional colour photography, deriving from the visual area of the EM spectrum. However, little attempt has been made to investigate the practice of NIR photography to detect clandestine graves using low-cost aerial platforms in the form of UAVs. This paper considers adopting a low-cost and non-invasive approach to detect clandestine graves through the implementation of a small UAV and an unmodified GoPro camera fixed with a near-infrared filter. The results presented here have recognised real-time suitability for using UAVs as an aerial photographic platform in the forensic archaeological field as well as noting the advantage of NIR photography as an ongoing technique for discriminating recent graves from their surroundings.

Recent military battlefield sites are often recorded by accident during geophysical investigations researching into earlier archaeological landscapes. The First World War (Great War) perhaps left its traces like no other war before or since in Europe. For the first time, a large area, some 16 ha in extent, has been surveyed overa modern conflict landscape.The authorshave attempted to combine two remote sensing techniques: analysis of contemporary Great Waraerialphotographsandgeophysical prospection techniques.The combination of two different approaches leads to a more comprehensive understanding of the Great War battlefield and an understanding of the value of remote sensing in this new area of applied research.

It can be crucial to know the effectiveness of particular geophysical detection techniques when trying to locate clandestine burials of murder victims. . Unlike in archaeology, there has been limited forensic research with regard to optimum methodologies, with most emphasis to-date on metal detectors and Ground Penetrating Radar by forensic search teams. This may not be suitable in certain soil types, non-metal targets or in significant search areas. Therefore in this study, magnetic and electrical resistivity detection techniques have been utilised over different-aged (0.25 -1 year) simulated clandestine burials with no buried metal, in contrasting depositional environments. These environments included semi-rural, urban, woodland and parkland, the parkland Medieval grave site acting as a control.The magnetic surveys showed mixed success of detecting clandestine burials.Elevated magnetic gradient readings, with respect to background values, were observed over very shallow burials, whereas deeper burials displayed a reduction in gradient and/or no associated magnetic anomalies. Magnetic anomalies were observed over surface-burials and validated by simple 2D forward modelling.Magnetic anomalies were also observed in the control dataset. Electrical resistivity surveys produced anomalies over all the simulated burial positions, including surface burials, but it did not produce anomalies at the control site.Laboratory analysis of simulated grave 'fluid' showed an overall increase in iron levels over a year post-burial (from xx to xx) which may account for the observed 3 magnetic anomaly variation. There was also a corresponding increase in grave 'fluid' conductivity which was interpreted to cause the observed resistivity anomalies.Study results have important implications for use of geophysical techniques when searching for clandestine burials. Local depositional environment, soil type, likely style of burial and search area size should all be considered when choosing forensic geophysical detection techniques. Geophysical data could locate a primary deposition site even though no physical evidence remains.4

Although the Belgian lowlands witnessed a dense rural occupation in Roman and especially in medieval times, the exact nature of the settlement patterns, the farms and the interaction with the landscape is still poorly understood archaeologically, both scientifically and from a heritage curatorship point of view. Archaeogeophysical research has remained relatively limited in this area. However, other prospection techniques such as aerial photography provide ample evidence of historic rural settlement. The main aim of this research is to develop an efficient and integrated approach for the characterization of these rural landscapes, by combining and mutually evaluating data from geophysical methods including magnetometer, electromagnetic induction and ground‐penetrating radar, aerial photography, fieldwalking, historic accounts and test‐pitting. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.