Prospects and problems in the use of hyperspectral imagery for archaeological remote sensing: a case study from the Faynan copper mining district, Jordan

Savage, Stephen H.; Levy, Thomas E.; Jones, Ian W. N.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.028

Cited by 30 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Remote sensing space and ground data have been used in recent years for the identification of buried archaeological remains [1][2][3][4]. The technological improvements of satellite sensors, both in terms of spatial as well as spectral resolution, achieved within the last years, can provide archaeologists with further information regarding the landscape, assisting them to better understand and interpret large archaeological areas [5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

et al. 2016

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Satellite images have been systematically explored by archaeologists to detect crop marks, which are considered as a proxy for the identification of buried archaeological remains. Even though several existing algorithms are frequently applied, such as histogram enhancements and vegetation indices, the detection of crop marks still remains a difficult task, while the final interpretation results can be very poor. This paper aims to present some of the current difficulties of "remote sensing archaeology" in terms of detection and interpretation of crop marks due to the crops' phenological variations. At the same time, the presented work seeks to evaluate the recently proposed linear equations for the enhancement of crop marks, initially developed for the eastern Mediterranean region. These linear equations re-project the initial n-space spectral into a new 3D orthogonal space determined by three components: a crop mark component, a vegetation component, and a soil component. For the aims of this study, the Lucera archaeological site (southern Italy), where several Neolithic trenches have been identified, was selected. QuickBird and GeoEye high-resolution satellite images were analysed, indicating that vegetation indices may mismatch some crop marks depending on the phenological stage of the vegetation cultivated in the area of the archaeological site. On the contrary, ratios from linear equations were able to spot these crop marks even in shadow areas, indicating that improvements and developments of novel methodologies and equations based on remote sensing datasets can further assist archaeological research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

et al. 2016

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“…In archaeology, AIS is considered to have a huge potential for airborne prospection, because it is assumed to overcome the deficits of conventional and multispectral imagery and enhance the visibility of soil color differences and plant stress. Several studies have demonstrated the advantage of this imaging technique (e.g., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]). …”

Section: Introduction-airborne Imaging Spectroscopy and Archaeologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

ARCTIS — A MATLAB® Toolbox for Archaeological Imaging Spectroscopy

et al. 2014

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Imaging spectroscopy acquires imagery in hundreds or more narrow contiguous spectral bands. This offers unprecedented information for archaeological research. To extract the maximum of useful archaeological information from it, however, a number of problems have to be solved. Major problems relate to data redundancy and the visualization of the large amount of data. This makes data mining approaches necessary, as well as efficient data visualization tools. Additional problems relate to data quality. Indeed, the upwelling electromagnetic radiation is recorded in small spectral bands that are only about ten nanometers wide. The signal received by the sensor is, thus quite low compared to sensor noise and possible atmospheric perturbations. The often small, instantaneous field of view (IFOV)-essential for archaeologically relevant imaging spectrometer datasets-further limits the useful signal stemming from the ground. The combination of both effects makes radiometric smoothing techniques mandatory. The present study details the functionality of a MATLAB ® -based toolbox, called ARCTIS (ARChaeological Toolbox for Imaging Spectroscopy), for filtering, enhancing, analyzing, and visualizing imaging spectrometer datasets. The toolbox addresses the above-mentioned problems. Its 8618Graphical User Interface (GUI) is designed to allow non-experts in remote sensing to extract a wealth of information from imaging spectroscopy for archaeological research. ARCTIS will be released under creative commons license, free of charge, via website (http://luftbildarchiv.univie.ac.at).

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“…This is the reason why their combined application is the best way for archaeological researches in vast areas, starting from general surveys of the whole territory, and continuing with a more detailed analysis of its parts, as a standard method adopted in a growing number of archaeological projects [19,23,25,28,38].…”

Section: Historical and Archaeological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multiscale and multitemporal data allow analysis and understanding at different levels, from a synoptic to a more detailed view, both studying specifics and relationships in the morphological context during time [22,23].…”

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confidence: 99%

Remote Sensing Multitemporal Data for Geomorphological Analysis of the Murghab Alluvial Fan in Turkmenistan

Pozzo¹,

Immordino²,

Candigliota³

2017

JEASE

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Archaeological studies are ever more landscape-oriented, in order to study archaeological evidences in relation with their territorial contexts. In such a framework, reconstruction and understanding of ancient landscapes assume a crucial role for archaeological research. This study proposes a first morphological analysis of the whole Murghab alluvial fan in Turkmenistan, by means of the SRTM-DEM datum, and then the reconstruction of the ancient hydrography in the northeastern fringe of the fan, based on medium-high geometric resolution satellite data, and in continuity with previous studies. The importance to know historical fluvial network is due to the strict relationship between fresh water availability and human settlement distribution. SRTM-DEM, Corona, Soyouz KFA, Landsat, and Aster data were used, overlaying them in a GIS, and digitizing palaeochannels through photo-interpretation were done. Today, this is an almost desert area of the fan, and that is why it is easier to recognize buried forms by means of photo-interpretation, even though sometimes in a doubtful way. Despite the uncertainties, this model provided a useful tool for next and focused archaeological field surveys and excavations, aimed to find out human settlement evidences in correlation with ancient waterways.

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Prospects and problems in the use of hyperspectral imagery for archaeological remote sensing: a case study from the Faynan copper mining district, Jordan

Cited by 30 publications

References 29 publications

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

ARCTIS — A MATLAB® Toolbox for Archaeological Imaging Spectroscopy

Remote Sensing Multitemporal Data for Geomorphological Analysis of the Murghab Alluvial Fan in Turkmenistan

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