High Resolution Drone Surveying of the Pista Geoglyph in Palpa, Peru

Abstract

Currently, satellite images can be used to document historical or archaeological sites in areas that are distant, dangerous, or expensive to visit, and they can be used instead of basic fieldwork in several cases. Nowadays, they have final resolution on 35–50 cm, which can be limited for searching of fine structures. Results using the analysis of very high resolution (VHR) satellite data and super resolution data from drone on an object nearby Palpa, Peru are discussed in this article. This study is a part of Nasca project focused on using satellite data for documentation and the analysis of the famous geoglyphs in Peru near Palpa and Nasca, and partially on the documentation of other historical objects. The use of drone shows advantages of this technology to achieve high resolution object documentation and analysis, which provide new details. The documented site was the “Pista” geoglyph. Discovering of unknown geoglyphs (a bird, a guinea pig, and other small drawings) was quite significant in the area of the well-known geoglyph. The new data shows many other details, unseen from the surface or from the satellite imagery, and provides the basis for updating current knowledge and theories about the use and construction of geoglyphs.

Sequential Earthquake Damage Assessment Incorporating Optimized sUAV Remote Sensing at Pescara del Tronto

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Measurement of spatio-temporal changes of cave ice using geodetic and geophysical methods: Dobšiná Ice Cave, Slovakia

“…The advantage of SfM is the simultaneous image matching, bundle adjustment, and reconstruction of a 3D structure on images. The principle itself, the sequence of individual processing steps, and the corresponding algorithms are generally well-known and frequently used (Seitz et al, 2006;Westoby et al, 2012;Remondino et al, 2014;Pavelka et al, 2018;Štroner et al, 2020;and others).…”

Earth Observation, Remote Sensing, and Geoscientific Ground Investigations for Archaeological and Heritage Research

“…In the current practice of archaeological remote sensing where small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)/Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) are increasingly used by archaeologists as data acquisition platforms and (semi-)autonomous measurement instrumentation, the paper published by Pavelka et al [28] demonstrates the agility of this RS solution in arid environments and the opportunity that it can offer for fascinating discoveries while documenting cultural landscapes. The authors exploited very high resolution (VHR) satellite data and super resolution data from the drone to improve the digital documentation of the "Pista" geoglyph in Palpa, Peru, and refine the knowledge and interpretation of this geoglyph that had been researched several times by the archaeologists, but still poses some open questions.…”