Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space

Given the rising awareness and interest in aerial and satellite remote sensing, there is a need to familiarize archaeologists with the basic principles and applications of what have become the most useful technologies. This volume, in the Springerbriefs Archaeologial Heritage Management series, accomplishes this. Contributions to the volume come from those who have been active in developing key technologies as well as those who have been most successful in applying them. Leading experts, most of them from NASA, concisely describe what needs to be understood in order to utilize images produced from data collected by the most important airborne and satellite sensing devices.. Exemplary applications of these technologies are presented in brief by archaeologists who have made notable discoveries using them or have contributed to archaeological resource preservation. Among the technologies examined are those that are undergoing rapid refinement and will be carried by an increasing number of aerial and satellite platforms, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), Lidar, and multispectral/hyperspectral sensors, as well as older space technologies now made more useful by the availability of increasingly sophisticated computer hardware and software. Of particular importance is the ability to model how development in and around archaeological sites and landscapes can damage or destroy archaeological materials. Nurturing the development and application of space and aerial technologies in archaeology is therefore a matter of the greatest urgency, an appropriate goal to adopt by governments and universities at the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. Researchers gain a sense of what is possible by the use of these technologies, and why they should be used.

Douglas Comer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the recipient of numerous grants for the development of aerial and satellite remote sensing technologies and GIS for archaeological research and cultural resource preservation, and has published extensively on archaeology and landscape management. A Fulbright Scholar in cultural resource management and former Chair of the Maryland Governor’s Advisory Committee on Archaeology, he served two terms on the Board of Trustees for the United States Committee for the International Council of Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS) and has been Chair of the Nominations Committee for the Register of Professional Archaeologists. He is currently Co-President of the International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM) for ICOMOS, and ex-officio member of the US/ICOMOS Board of Trustees representing the Society for American Archaeology (SAA).Michael Harrower is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Research Associate of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He is a specialist in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), satellite remote sensing, and advanced GPS mapping in archaeology. His field research in Yemen, Ethiopia and Oman has been funded by agencies including NASA, The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. In the past ten years he has more than ten publications in international peer-reviewed journals, many involving the use advanced geospatial technologies.