Airborne LiDAR in Mountain Archaeology

Abstract

Airborne LiDAR, or airborne Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technique that measures, among other things, the terrain elevation. In the past two decades, it has become an indispensable component of landscape archaeology, especially for archaeological prospection. However, it is still infrequently used in mountain archaeology. This is especially true in the high mountains, where technical challenges make its use difficult. We can anticipate more successful applications in the future due to the ever-improving quality of data. At present, the greatest untapped potential of LiDAR data for mountain archaeology, we argue, lies in ‘deep’ interpretation or analysis of archaeological features in their landscape context. This approach is illustrated by the case study Vodotočnik (Slovenia). We used this high-mountain pasture to test the hypothesis for site location choice, which was put forward by experienced mountain archaeologists. Based on the results of six distinct geomorphometric analyses, we reinterpreted the site and demonstrated the benefits of LiDAR data for modelling landscape context at the scale of individual buildings and activity areas.