Recent trends and long-standing problems in archaeological remote sensing

Opitz, R. and Herrmann, J. (2018) Recent trends and long-standing problems in archaeological remote sensing. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 1(1), pp. 19-41. (doi: 10.5334/jcaa.11)

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Abstract

The variety and sophistication of data sources, sensors, and platforms employed in archaeological remote sensing have increased significantly over the past decade. Projects incorporating data from UAV surveys, regional and research-driven lidar surveys, the uptake of hyperspectral imaging, the launch of high-temporal revisit satellites, the advent of multi-sensor rigs for geophysical survey, and increased use of structure from motion mean that more archaeologists are engaging with remote sensing than ever. These technological advances continue to drive research in the specialist community and provide reasons for optimism about future applications, but many social and technical obstacles to the integration of remote sensing into archaeological research and heritage management remain. This article addresses the challenges of contemporary archaeological remote sensing by briefly reviewing trends and then focusing on providing a critical overview of the main structural problems. The discussion here concentrates on topics that have dominated the discourse in recent archaeological literature and featured prominently in ongoing fieldwork for the past decade across three broad segments of landscape archaeology: data collection in the field, the current state of data access and archives, and processing and interpretation.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This paper has benefitted from discussions with colleagues in the archaeological remote sensing community over the years, and from ongoing engagement with a variety of projects integrating remote sensing through the SPARC Program (NSF Awards #1321443, 1519660 and 1720339).
Keywords:Landscape archaeology, archaeological geophysics, aerial archaeology, archaeological methods.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Opitz, Dr Rachel
Authors: Opitz, R., and Herrmann, J.
Subjects:C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Archaeology
Journal Name:Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology
Journal Abbr.:JCAA
Publisher:Ubiquity Press
ISSN:2514-8362
ISSN (Online):2514-8362
Published Online:10 May 2018
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2018 The Authors
First Published:First published in Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 1(1):19-41
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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