Automatic detection of potential buried archaeological sites in Saruq Al-Hadid, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The use of remote sensing in archaeological research allows the prospection of sub-surfaces in arid regions nonintrusively before the on-site investigation and excavation. While the actual detection method of expected buried archaeological structures is based on visual interpretation, this work provides a supporting archaeological guidance using remote sensing. The aim is to detect potential archaeological remains underneath the sand. This paper focuses on Saruq Al-Hadid surroundings, which is an archaeologist site discovered in 2002, located about 50 km southeast of Dubai, as archaeologists believe that other archaeological sites are potentially buried in the surroundings. The input data is derived from a combination of wavelength L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR), which is able to penetrate the sand, and multispectral optical images (Landsat 7). This paper develops a new strategy to help in the detection of suspected buried structures. The data fusion of surface roughness and spectral indices enables tackling the well-known limitation of SAR images and offers a set of pixels having an archaeological signature different from the manmade structures. The potential buried sites are then classified by performing a pixel-level unsupervised classification algorithm such as K-means cluster analysis. To test the performance of the proposed method, the results are compared with those obtained by visual interpretation.

Mapping the paleo-landscape features and middle or/and later Stone Age settlements of Tokar region, North-eastern Sudan using Radar Sentinel-1 (GRD) imagery

“…In more detail, the age of space archaeology potentially started as early as the 1970s, when the first acquired satellite images, such as CORONA images, became useful and irreplaceable tools for finding buried and unknown archaeological sites. Consequently, archives of Landsat, SRTM, etc., have continued to be used to detect paleogeography, paleohydrography, and buried archaeological features based on differences in topographic and morphological land surfaces, soil, and crop marks [59][60][61]. In the field of archaeology, several satellite sensors have been used in multiple fields, such as in the field of cultural heritage management and in the detection of buried archaeological remains [62][63][64][65].…”

Detecting and Predicting Archaeological Sites Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning—Application to the Saruq Al-Hadid Site, Dubai, UAE

“…Archaeological fieldwork and post-excavation analyses were conducted by several authors e.g., [23][24][25][26][27][28]. However, a very limited number of studies have approached the site using satellite remote sensing [29].…”