Historic Aerial Photographic Archives for European Archaeology

Abstract

This article reviews the potential of archives of historic aerial photographs for European archaeology. Their roles in primary site discovery, in monitoring condition and material change, and in understanding landscape development with particular reference to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention are discussed. The major sources are briefly described and their characteristics outlined. The impacts that differing national and regional research traditions and heritage policy have on the use of these archival collections is discussed in the framework of issues of variable accessibility and approaches to ensuring appropriate uses, including identifying limitations.

Searching for Viking Age Fortresses with Automatic Landscape Classification and Feature Detection

“…Societies have limited resources for exploring and protecting cultural heritage, which makes it essential that we can identify which sites are of key scientific potential before they disappear. Automated feature detection and characterization affords the means to exploit the vast global archives [86][87][88] of data to achieve this.…”

Capturing the Past for the Future: an Evaluation of the Effect of Geometric Scan Deformities on the Performance of Aerial Archival Media in Image‐based Modelling Environments

“…In addition to extracting 3D content from modern digital imagery, these applications can also be used to successfully generate 3D content from historic and archival photographs. These include air and space‐borne reconnaissance frame images, millions of which are stored in archives around the world, including the Aerial Reconnaissance Archive at the National Collection for Aerial Photography (NCAP) in Edinburgh, Scotland (Cowley and Stichelbaut, ; Hanson and Oltean, ; NCAP, ). These are invaluable aids to archaeological research, and image‐based modelling (IBM) techniques can help us to exploit the dormant power of these resources, even when they are heavily degraded or lack necessary calibration information needed for processing in high end photogrammetric packages (Sevara, ; Verhoeven et al ., ).…”

Interpretive and Analytical Approaches to Aerial Survey in Archaeology

“…7, 90, 91;Leidorf 1996, 42;Stanjek, Faßbinder 1996); such coverage is very rarely represented in many existing archives. Some hope in this respect is offered by the surviving photographs taken in air reconnaissance during the Second World War and during the subsequent, so-called Cold War period (Cowley, Stichelbaut 2012;Going 2002;Rączkowski 2004), where these seasons might be better represented, even though the geographical coverage and actual number of surviving photographs will be limited.…”