Revealing the paleolandscape features around the archaeological sites in the northern Nile Delta of Egypt using radar satellite imagery and GEE platform

Abstract

Egyptian civilization has long flourished along the banks of the Nile, in the south (e.g. Luxor and Aswan), the Middle (e.g. Giza ‘Great Pyramids’) and North (e.g. San El‐Hagar and Buto), as well as the less populated areas of the Sinai Peninsula, the Western Desert and the Red Sea coast. There are archaeological sites date back to the Palaeolithic period and cover the Pre‐dynastic, Pharaonic, Hellenistic‐Roman, Coptic and Muslim periods. Across the Nile Delta, many of these archaeological sites have disappeared beneath Nile alluvium from the annual inundation or through intensive agricultural use, climate changes and other anthropogenic activities. This study aims to detect the long‐term changes in the landscape of the archaeological area of Burullus on the Mediterranean shoreline in the North Delta of Egypt. By combining data from historic topographic maps with Radar Sentinel‐1 (High‐resolution Level‐1 GRD) and SRTM data, topographic signatures in satellite imagery can be compared with the historic record of archaeological sites, many of which are now lost. Image layering, enhancement and analysis using ENVI 5.1, ArcMap 10.4.1 and Snap 8.0 software as well as Google Earth Pro facilitated the imagery identification and acquisition. The results of this study provide a means of quantifying the significant loss of cultural heritage sites due to anthropogenic and natural changes in the landscape. This analysis has also identified two—previously unknown—potential archaeological sites. Finally, the reconstruction of the paleolandscape of the study area shows the changing relationships of ancient and historic settlements with natural and man‐made waterways over time. Integrating remote sensing data and historic maps offers a method for evaluating paleolandscapes and locating disappeared archaeological sites that can be applied in other areas of Egypt and the world.

Mapping the paleo-landscape features and middle or/and later Stone Age settlements of Tokar region, North-eastern Sudan using Radar Sentinel-1 (GRD) imagery

“…The two passes of the DESCENDING and ASCENDING layers must have the values {min: − 25, max: 5} and 'Multi-T Mean ASC' , true) in the added layerby-maps. Finally, the map with the required information was exported at the appropriate pass at the needed scale and maximum pixel value [76]. Figure 2 shows the flowchart, which includes the general headlines of the study.…”

Tracking the effects of the long‐term changes on the coastal archaeological sites of the Mediterranean using remote sensing data: The case study from the northern shoreline of Nile Delta of Egypt

“…Archaeological artefacts are unique and irreplaceable; therefore, their documentation, protection and sustainable management are important issues, especially for the fragile archaeological landscapes of the Mediterranean coastline region (Stek, 2016). In this context, the use of satellite time‐series data over a long period can help in detecting landscape changes that adversely affect heritage sites during the last few decades (Abate et al, 2020; Attia et al, 2022; Elfadaly et al, 2022; Lasaponara et al, 2016, 2017). Optical and Radar satellite data proved their efficiency in studying the landscape features including archaeological sites and analysing natural and anthropogenic hazards (Keay et al, 2014).…”

Archaeological site identification from open access multispectral imagery: Cloud computing applications in Northern Kurdistan (Iraq)

“…GEE (not to be confused with the Google Earth application that has well‐established applications in the Cultural Heritage field: Luo et al, (2018)) is a recent online resource for large‐scale cloud processing of geospatial data. It has been already experimented for archaeological purposes (Agapiou, 2017; Firpi, 2016), such as the identification of archaeological features in Jordan (Liss et al, 2017); the evaluation of urban sprawl over the area of the Amathus site in Cyprus (Agapiou, 2021) and the city of Matera in Italy (Danese et al, 2021); the assessment of Ethiopian archaeological heritage (Khalaf & Insoll, 2019); the detection of the looting activities on the archaeological site of Apamea in Syria (Agapiou, 2020); the assessment of risks for archaeological sites in Libya and Egypt (Rayne et al, 2020); the reconstruction of palaeolandscape and buried Bronze Age features in the Po Plain in Italy (Brandolini et al, 2021); the estimation of the environmental risks coming from fires and floods on the archaeological site of Metaponto, Italy (Fattore et al, 2021); the hidden parts of the via Appia in Italy (Lasaponara et al, 2022); and the palaeolandscape in proximity of archaeological features in Egypt (Elfadaly et al, 2022).…”