2022
DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2022.22
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Succeeding CORONA: declassified HEXAGON intelligence imagery for archaeological and historical research

Abstract: Over the past 25 years, CORONA satellite imagery has become an integral part of archaeological research, especially for arid, sparsely vegetated regions such as the Middle East. Since 2020, a new archive of satellite imagery gathered by the US spy satellite programme that succeeded CORONA—HEXAGON—has become widely available for download via the United States Geological Survey. This photographic archive has enormous potential for archaeological research. Here, the authors seek to lower the barriers to accessing… Show more

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Cited by 37 publications
(30 citation statements)
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“…Dark and light-coloured wide linear features surrounding inhabitation areas in both the satellite imagery and the UAV imagery reflect the presence of city walls, sometimes paired with ditches or canals along their exterior faces. This interpretation has been verified (and clarified) with magnetic gradiometry data, which show segments of city walls in two different locations (McMahon et al 2023, forthcoming;Hammer 2022). Analysis of the UAV imagery indicates that two large continuous, irregularly shaped areas of habitation in the southern half of the site-the "west ridge" and "east ridge"-were separately surrounded by two distinct city walls.…”
Section: Bounding Features: City Wall and Watercoursesmentioning
confidence: 76%
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“…Dark and light-coloured wide linear features surrounding inhabitation areas in both the satellite imagery and the UAV imagery reflect the presence of city walls, sometimes paired with ditches or canals along their exterior faces. This interpretation has been verified (and clarified) with magnetic gradiometry data, which show segments of city walls in two different locations (McMahon et al 2023, forthcoming;Hammer 2022). Analysis of the UAV imagery indicates that two large continuous, irregularly shaped areas of habitation in the southern half of the site-the "west ridge" and "east ridge"-were separately surrounded by two distinct city walls.…”
Section: Bounding Features: City Wall and Watercoursesmentioning
confidence: 76%
“…However, it is striking that the "fingers" of higher land marking the river's entrance into and exit from Lagash point directly towards Girsu (to the northwest) and Nigin (to the southeast). Examination of all three sites in declassified HEXAGON satellite imagery (for more on this imagery, see Hammer, FitzPatrick, and Ur 2022) shows that a river course of roughly comparable width (c. 25-30 m) to the one at Lagash also appears to pass through occupied areas at Girsu and Nigin (Figure 7). Watercourses at Girsu have been mapped by the excavation team in CORONA and Bing Map imagery; the team identifies a narrower watercourse immediately to the west as the "Going-to-Nigin" canal (Rey and Lecompte 2020: 216).…”
Section: Bounding Features: City Wall and Watercoursesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For example, 1950s–1960s U2 aerial imagery was collected at the same time as the CORONA imagery (1959–1972), but U2 images are much higher resolution and are varyingly available across populated areas of Western Asia [ 46 ]. For the period between 1971–1986, declassified, high resolution (< 1 m) HEXAGON KH-9 imagery is available across the globe [ 47 – 49 ] and provides an important time frame missing from this study. It should be noted that both U2 and HEXAGON imagery have either significant accessibility or spatial distortion challenges that currently require access to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the USA or georeferencing expertise to overcome [ 46 , 49 ].…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For the period between 1971–1986, declassified, high resolution (< 1 m) HEXAGON KH-9 imagery is available across the globe [ 47 – 49 ] and provides an important time frame missing from this study. It should be noted that both U2 and HEXAGON imagery have either significant accessibility or spatial distortion challenges that currently require access to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the USA or georeferencing expertise to overcome [ 46 , 49 ]. However, in the future, the development of online repositories and georeferencing tools like the CORONA Atlas and its associated “Sunspot” referencing system ( https://sunspot.cast.uark.edu/ ) [ 22 , 50 , 51 ] will likely make U2 and HEXAGON historic imagery more readily accessible [ 49 ].…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
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