SignificanceUnderstanding how people in the past adapted to environmental and economic challenges can help us anticipate and meet these challenges in the present. However, these very processes threaten the physical remains embodying this information worldwide: Urban expansion and resource exploitation mean that the quantity and quality of archaeological information are diminishing daily. In this work, we demonstrate how multitemporal aerial photography and modern airborne laser scanning are invaluable tools for mapping the remaining archaeological features extant in the present and for adding context to them from what has been lost. This knowledge enables cultural heritage administrators and archaeologists to actively monitor, understand, and manage the existing remains to make sure important information is not lost to posterity.
TheVale of Pickering, inYorkshire hasbeenthe setting forone of thelargest archaeologicalresearch projects in Europe for more than 30 years.The accrued data includes over 1000 ha of fluxgate gradiometer measurements that can be interpreted with reference to 200 ha of subsurface mapping, 25 years of aerial photographic survey, two large-area multispectral and vertical photographic surveys, a Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) survey and area excavations in excess of 22 ha. Crucially, this multifaceted approach has revealed flaws in our appreciation of the archaeological landscape based on isolated 'sites' . This paper summarizes aspects of the approaches and results using a variety of remote sensing techniques to characterize the nature and extent of the archaeological resource in an aggregate rich environment.
In arable landscapes, the airborne detection of archaeological features is often reliant on using the properties of the vegetation cover as a proxy for sub-surface features in the soil. Under the right conditions, the formation of vegetation marks allows archaeologists to identify and interpret archaeological features. Using airborne Laser Scanning, based on the principles of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to detect these marks is challenging, particularly given the difficulties of resolving subtle changes in a low and homogeneous crop with these sensors. In this paper, an experimental approach is adopted to explore how these marks could be detected as variations in canopy biomass using both range and full waveform LiDAR data. Although some detection was achieved using metrics of the full waveform data, it is the novel multi-temporal method of using discrete return data to detect and characterise archaeological vegetation marks that is offered for further consideration. This method was demonstrated to be applicable over a range of capture conditions, including soils deemed as difficult (i.e., clays and other heavy soils), and should increase the certainty of detection when employed in the increasingly multi-sensor approaches to heritage prospection and management.
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