Aerial archaeology in Jordan

Kennedy, David; Bewley, Robert

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00098094

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The use of aerial photography for archaeology has a long history, beginning with the use of balloons in the nineteenth century and being advanced through the methods of reconnaissance and documentation using aeroplanes developed during the First World War [1,39,40]. Aerial archaeology in many parts of the world is now well developed (e.g., UK, USA, France, Italy, Jordan), and important historic imagery is available via substantial archives (e.g., National Collection of Aerial Photography, which contains images from the UK and much of the world).…”

Section: Reconstructing Archaeological Landscapes Remotelymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Petrie

Orengo²,

Green

et al. 2018

Geosciences

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A range of data sources are now used to support the process of archaeological prospection, including remote sensed imagery, spy satellite photographs and aerial photographs. This paper advocates the value and importance of a hitherto under-utilised historical mapping resource—the Survey of India 1” to 1-mile map series, which was based on surveys started in the mid–late nineteenth century, and published progressively from the early twentieth century AD. These maps present a systematic documentation of the topography of the British dominions in the South Asian Subcontinent. Incidentally, they also documented the locations, the height and area of thousands of elevated mounds that were visible in the landscape at the time that the surveys were carried out, but have typically since been either damaged or destroyed by the expansion of irrigation agriculture and urbanism. Subsequent reanalysis has revealed that many of these mounds were actually the remains of ancient settlements. The digitisation and analysis of these historic maps thus creates a unique opportunity for gaining insight into the landscape archaeology of South Asia. This paper reviews the context within which these historical maps were created, presents a method for georeferencing them, and reviews the symbology that was used to represent elevated mound features that have the potential to be archaeological sites. This paper should be read in conjunction with the paper by Arnau Garcia et al. in the same issue of Geosciences, which implements a research programme combining historical maps and a range of remote sensing approaches to reconstruct historical landscape dynamics in the Indus River Basin.

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Section: Reconstructing Archaeological Landscapes Remotelymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Petrie

Orengo²,

Green

et al. 2018

Geosciences

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“…They were also identified in neighbouring countries — Syria, Saudi Arabia and Israel (see Kennedy ; forthcoming) — and by 1995, a broad survey of their purpose and extent could calculate a total of over 500 throughout ‘Arabia’ (Échallier & Braemer : 36). The pace of discovery has increased rapidly since 1997 through a programme of aerial reconnaissance for archaeology in Jordan (Kennedy & Bewley ) and with the growing availability of high‐resolution satellite imagery on virtual globes such as Google Earth and Bing Maps (Kennedy ). By March 2011, the count of kites had reached c .2000 (Kennedy : 3187; table ), but just one year later, in March 2012, it is over 3000 (Table ), a 6‐fold increase since 1995 and a 50% increase in the last year alone.…”

Section: Discovery From the Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kites — new discoveries and a new type

Kennedy

2012

Arab Archaeol Epigr

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The stone structures known as kites and found widely in ‘Arabia’, are one of the more intriguing archaeological traces in what are often arid and bleak landscapes. They were first reported from the air in 1927, and by 1995 — largely through interpretation of old aerial photographs — c.500 had been identified. Now (2012), remote‐sensing techniques of various kinds have produced a huge increase, to over 3000. Recent work has also extended the geographical spread of kites in ‘Arabia’, from south‐eastern Turkey and north‐western Iraq to central Yemen. Much detailed work will be required to develop and refine a typology for kites as a whole and to digest and present data from remote sensing on which specialists may build interpretations and explanations. Current tabulation and mapping, however, already reveal patterns, and the discovery of an unusual form in the desert between Damascus and Palmyra in Syria deserves special attention.

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“…; Betts & Yagodin ; Brunner ; Échallier & Braemer ; Holzer et al . ; Fowden ; Kempe & al‐Malabeh , ; Kennedy , ; Kennedy & Bewley ; Kennedy & Bishop ; Kobusiewicz ; Maitland ; Meshel , ; Bonacossi & Iamoni ; Nadel et al . , ; Rees ; Van Berg et al .…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

New insights into desert kites in Armenia: the fringes of the Ararat Depression

Nadel

Bar-Oz

Malkinson

et al. 2015

Arab Archaeol Epigr

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The Armenian kites are the northernmost known kites in south-west Asia. In contrast to those in the deserts further south, their research has only recently begun. The Armenian kites are situated at high elevations, mostly between 900 and 1500 m above mean sea level, in steppic conditions where Artemisia is at present the dominant shrub on the landscape. In our ongoing project we excavated three V-shaped kites and one enclosure kite. The two kinds are similar in construction details, but they differ in size and location: the former run down into gullies, while the latter were placed on the plateau. Six OSL ages suggest terminal Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age construction dates, while geomorphological considerations and surface artefacts suggest earlier dates. A preliminary palynological study suggests a gradual increase in grazing-resistant vegetation since the mid-Holocene, probably reflecting human impact on the natural vegetation through the herding of grazing animals.

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Aerial archaeology in Jordan

Cited by 25 publications

References 12 publications

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

Kites — new discoveries and a new type

New insights into desert kites in Armenia: the fringes of the Ararat Depression

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