Soviet military maps and archaeological survey in the Samarkand region

Rondelli, Bernardo; Stride, Sebastian; García-Granero, Juan José

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2012.06.006

Cited by 30 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…There is growing interest in the history and execution of the mapping projects carried out in various imperial dominions, particularly those of the UK [8,[51][52][53][54], but also the former USSR. The inclusion of archaeological sites on Soviet era maps of parts of the former USSR and Afghanistan produced by the Soviet Military Topographic Service has been noted [5,28,55], but these maps have been used in relatively limited areas and/or on a relatively small scale. It is notable that the types of sites that are easy to distinguish on these maps are clearly ancient sites with distinctive morphologies.…”

Section: Reconstructing Archaeological Landscapes Remotelymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Petrie

Orengo²,

Green

et al. 2018

Geosciences

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A range of data sources are now used to support the process of archaeological prospection, including remote sensed imagery, spy satellite photographs and aerial photographs. This paper advocates the value and importance of a hitherto under-utilised historical mapping resource—the Survey of India 1” to 1-mile map series, which was based on surveys started in the mid–late nineteenth century, and published progressively from the early twentieth century AD. These maps present a systematic documentation of the topography of the British dominions in the South Asian Subcontinent. Incidentally, they also documented the locations, the height and area of thousands of elevated mounds that were visible in the landscape at the time that the surveys were carried out, but have typically since been either damaged or destroyed by the expansion of irrigation agriculture and urbanism. Subsequent reanalysis has revealed that many of these mounds were actually the remains of ancient settlements. The digitisation and analysis of these historic maps thus creates a unique opportunity for gaining insight into the landscape archaeology of South Asia. This paper reviews the context within which these historical maps were created, presents a method for georeferencing them, and reviews the symbology that was used to represent elevated mound features that have the potential to be archaeological sites. This paper should be read in conjunction with the paper by Arnau Garcia et al. in the same issue of Geosciences, which implements a research programme combining historical maps and a range of remote sensing approaches to reconstruct historical landscape dynamics in the Indus River Basin.

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Section: Reconstructing Archaeological Landscapes Remotelymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Petrie

Orengo²,

Green

et al. 2018

Geosciences

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“…The main improvements for processing CORONA images have come from studies aimed at developing a rigorous geometric approach for georeferencing the photographs and to extract digital elevation models (DEM) from the stereo capabilities of the images (Altmaier and Kany, ; Jacobsen, ; Sohn et al, ; Hamandawana et al, ; Galiatsatos, ; Mészáros et al, ). These advances were mostly developed within the framework of archaeological research, predominantly in the semi‐arid regions of the Near East (Philip et al, ; Galiatsatos et al, ; Alizadeh and Ur, ; Casana and Cothren, ; Bitelli and Girelli, ; Hall, ; Beck and Philip, ; Ur, ; see also references from the CORONA Atlas Project in Casana and Cothren, ) and temperate areas of North/Central Asia (Gheyle et al, ; Goossens et al, ; Rondelli et al, ). Most of these studies aimed at the detection of archaeological features at landscape level, such as tells or ancient hollow roads and pathways, especially in landscapes where features have been damaged or no longer survive (Kennedy, ; Ur, , ; Wilkinson, ; Comfort et al, ; Wilkinson et al, ; Hritz, ; Palmer, ).…”

Section: Corona Reconnaissance Photographsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CORONA Photographs in Monsoonal Semi‐arid Environments: Addressing Archaeological Surveys and Historic Landscape Dynamics over North Gujarat, India

Conesa

Madella

Galiatsatos

et al. 2014

Archaeological Prospection

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Here we illustrate a ground map approach that uses orthorectified CORONA KH4B images and declassified topographical maps to study historical land-use dynamics and to help planning archaeological survey in the monsoonal semi-arid alluvial plains of North Gujarat, India. In spite of its generalized use in archaeological applications, CORONA photographs have rarely been used in Indian archaeological contexts. The methods discuss a cost-effective and integrated protocol for: (i) obtaining ground control points (GCPs) and orthorectify CORONA photographs when very high-resolution imagery or detailed topographic maps are not available; and (ii) evaluating the integration of declassified datasets into Google Earth Pro for addressing archaeological surveys in remote areas. The merging of CORONA imagery with declassified USA and the former USSR historical military maps provided a picture of the human-environment interaction in North Gujarat of the past 40 years, prior to the intense development of mechanical agriculture and regional irrigation channels. We conclude by identifying the human and climate-induced taphonomical processes that are obliterating a fragile landscape characterized by archaeological scatters located in fossilized sand dunes.The land-use patterns that were earlier determined by the availability of surface water (stored in seasonal flooded interdunes or village ponds, in close relation

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“…Russian topographic maps [Turkmenskaja SSR, 1:50,000, General'nyj Stab, Moskva (1954–1958, renewed 1973), map sheets: J‐41‐109‐B, J‐41‐109‐G, J‐41‐110‐A, and J‐41‐110‐V] turned out to be very helpful by (1) providing detailed information on archeological remains and stream patterns and (2) representing the setting before 1950, when the landscape was probably much less modified than today (cf. Ref ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern impacts on an ancient landscape, the piedmont plain in southwest Turkmenistan

et al. 2017

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The piedmont plain in southwestern Turkmenistan has experienced a millennia‐long settlement history despite prevailing arid climates. One of the prerequisites for the various agricultural efforts was irrigation. Most of the water used for irrigation measures came from the adjacent Kopet Dag mountain chain. This situation changed with the introduction of the Karakum canal in the middle of the 20th century. The present study evaluates the rich irrigation history of the piedmont plain by investigating two small catchments that drain the eastern ranges of the Kopet Dag. Within their catchments, geomorphological and hydrological analyses were conducted. We present several Optically Stimulated Luminescence and 14‐C dating results that add to the understanding of the landscape history from the Pleistocene until modern ages. Moreover, modern climatological and hydrological data were analyzed that show a remarkable drop in runoff from the Kopet Dag since the 1960s. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1202. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1202 This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

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Soviet military maps and archaeological survey in the Samarkand region

Abstract: El artículo seleccionado no se encuentra disponible por ahora a texto completo por no haber sido facilitado todavía por el investigador a cargo del archivo del mismo.

Cited by 30 publications

References 15 publications

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

CORONA Photographs in Monsoonal Semi‐arid Environments: Addressing Archaeological Surveys and Historic Landscape Dynamics over North Gujarat, India

Modern impacts on an ancient landscape, the piedmont plain in southwest Turkmenistan

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