Wings over Armenia: use of a paramotor for archaeological aerial survey

Abstract

Aerial survey in a country with restricted overflying can be frustrating. Armenian and British archaeologists solved the problem by acquiring a two-person paramotor and photographing with a digital camera at 300m. Here are some of the first aerial pictures of the rich tapestry of Armenia’s archaeology.

Providing an archaeological bird's‐eye view – an overall picture of ground‐based means to execute low‐altitude aerial photography (LAAP) in Archaeology

“…Kvamme et al, 2004;Hailey, 2005), gliders, paramotors (e.g. Faustmann and Palmer, 2005), and ULMs (Ultra Légers Motorisés)/ ultralight aircrafts (e.g. Agache and Bréart, 1983;Walker, 1985;Bourgeois et al, 2007;Vermeulen, 2008) or unmanned devices such as balloons, kites, model aircrafts, blimps and poles are used to acquire imagery from the air.…”

Recovering traditions in the digital era: the use of blimps for modelling the archaeological cultural heritage

“…Use of low-cost platforms for aerial photography has been reported in many cases (Miyatsuka, 1996;Theodoridou et al, 2000;Zischinsky et al, 2000;Karras et al, 1999;and Faustmann and Palmer, 2005). Kites, balloons, radio controlled model helicopters, rope-way, fish rods and well buckets are only some of the ingenious methods photogrammetrists are using for low altitude photography.…”

Three‐dimensional modelling of large archaeological sites using images obtained from masts. Application to Qubbet el‐Hawa site (Aswan, Egypt)

“…However, the number of images needed to cover a zone is incremented with the reduction of the distance to the object. Previously to the development of UASs, some approaches had been implemented in order to lift cameras, such as using balloons (Altan, Celikoyan, Kemper, & Toz, ; Bitelli, Tini, & Vittuari, ; Fotinopoulos, ; Mihajlovic, Mitrovic, Cvijetinovic, & Vojinovic, ; Mozas‐Calvache, Pérez‐García, Cardenal‐Escarcena, Mata‐Castro, & Delgado‐García, b), blimps (Gómez‐Lahoz & González‐Aguilera, ), kites and helikites (Verhoeven, Loenders, Vermeulen, & Docter, ; Verhoeven, Taelman, & Vermeulen, ), paramotors (Faustmann & Palmer, ) and tripods or masts (Blockley & Morandi, ; Georgopoulos, Karras, & Makris, ; Martínez, Ortiz, & Gil, ; Martínez, Ortiz, Gil, & Rego, ; Mozas‐Calvache et al, a; Ortiz, Gil, Martínez, Rego, & Meijide, ). A wider analysis of these techniques was performed by Verhoeven ().…”