From Above and on the Ground: Geospatial Methods for Recording Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Abstract:The EAMENA (Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa) project is a collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Oxford and Durham; it is funded by the Arcadia Fund and the Cultural Protection Fund. This paper explores the development of the EAMENA methodology, and discusses some of the problems of working across such a broad region. We discuss two main case studies: the World Heritage site of Cyrene illustrates how the project can use satellite imagery (dating from the 1960s to 2017), in conjunction with published data to create a detailed set of database records for a single site and, in particular, highlights the impact of modern urban expansion across the region. Conversely, the Homs Cairns case study demonstrates how the EAMENA methodology also works at an extensive scale, and integrates image interpretation (using imagery dating from the 1960s to 2016), landuse mapping and field survey (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) to record and analyse the condition of hundreds of features across a small study region. This study emphasises the impact of modern agricultural and land clearing activities. Ultimately, this paper assesses the effectiveness of the EAMENA approach, evaluating its potential success against projects using crowd-sourcing and automation for recording archaeological sites, and seeks to determine the most appropriate methods to use to document sites and assess disturbances and threats across such a vast and diverse area.

Remote Sensing and Geosciences for Archaeology

“…Similar evidence has been found in review exercises of specific domains of archaeological remote sensing based on decades of published literature [1]. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the Special Issue includes examples of international, collaborative efforts between teams of scholars, academics, and/or cultural institutions for remote sensing-based studies on archaeology and heritage of developing countries or crisis zones [12][13][14].…”

“…Rayne et al [13], instead, focus on the value of combining multi-temporal satellite imagery with published data to create a detailed set of database records for a single site. They also discuss how the mapping of site disturbances at an extensive scale across cultural landscapes should integrate multi-temporal image interpretation, land-use mapping, and field surveys.…”

“…Building upon the renowned capability of satellite optical imagery (mostly sourced from commercial providers) to be an objective source of information to assess the condition of heritage at risk, the contributions by Danti et al [12] and Rayne et al [13] demonstrate how archaeologists and heritage professionals-with skills of remote sensing or supported by image analysts-can exploit large volumes of very high-resolution images to undertake systematic regional-scale efforts of damage mapping and assessment, leading to site-scale investigations and multi-temporal change detection. Both the teams of scholars have addressed the challenge of building site databases that could enable spatial and temporal querying of the results.…”

“…The published Special Issue contains a collection of 21 articles; one is a review paper on piezoelectric/seismoelectric methods to identify near-surface targets [9], and six are feature papers that were solicited for submission to provide either an overview of specific domains of archaeological remote sensing (e.g., passive airborne optical imaging, [10]) or demonstrations of state-of-the-art remote sensing data [11], research methodologies [12,13], and processing tools and workflows [14,15] for landscape archaeology and archaeological prospection. Figure 1 compares the geographic distribution of the authors and research teams publishing in the Special Issue ( Figure 1a) and of the case studies and demonstration sites (Figure 1b).…”

“…The papers published in the Special Issue cover a wide spectrum of techniques: satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging [11,16,17]; optical remote sensing from high to very-high resolution space-borne sensors [12,13,[18][19][20][21]; geophysics including magnetometer surveys, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), geoelectric resistivity measurements, multi frequency Electromagnetic Induction (EMI), piezoelectric/seismoelectric methods [9,22,23]; photogrammetry [24]; terrestrial laser scanning and three-dimensional (3D) point clouds [25,26]. Some of the papers also explore the benefits of combining different approaches, e.g., optical remote sensing, aerial imagery and geophysical prospection [27,28], 3D surveys, and reconstruction in GIS environment [29].…”