Remote Sensing in Archaeology. All'Insegna del Giglio, Firenze. 2001.
ISBN 88-7814-175-5. Price 80,000 lire (about 42 Euro)
Stefano Campana and Maurizio Forte (ed)
This volume is a collection of papers from the 1999 International School in Archaeology run by the University of Siena
(see Driver and Musson, AARGnews 20, 51-54). The contents are largely technical as applied to archaeology rather than archaeology
as derived from technology and most of the source images are from satellites or vertical photographs. Six of the fourteen papers are
in English and the rest have English summaries as well as some relatively comprehensible technical captions, tables and illustrations.
The breadth of the UniSi research interests are apparent in the papers (about one-third of the book) contributed by the editors. Their
contents range from manipulation of images to the resolution and potential of types of imagery. But this is not done merely as a technical
manual as the authors never lose sight of their archaeological aims. The pages also provide a rich source of internet sites (also available
athttp://archeologiamedievale.unisi.it/NewPages/REMOTESENS/REMOTE.html).
American input comes from two papers. One outlines the early stages of a test case to examine the capabilities of a range of imagery
on the target site of Oatlands Plantation. This is a 3500 acre property that included a 'big house' and various slave and work buildings
some of which are now lost. This will eventually be useful stuff and may demonstrate that we don't all need to fly at 100m to find
archaeological features. The second paper uses Landsat TM imagery for the detection and modelling of landscape (vegetational)
change in Honduras. This is necessarily 'coarse grained' stuff and uses mathematical classification to detect 'anomolies' in the forest
cover that may identify sites and also to develop a history of vegetation.
Three papers from the UK show varied approaches. Danny Donoghue continues his evaluation of airborne MS scanners, thermography
and satellite MS imagery. This long-term research is now able to utilise the leaps made in computer technology and improved image
quality to help detect archaeological features of increasingly small size. Another long-term project is at Heslerton in Yorkshire where
Dominic Powlesland mixes the results of oblique photography, vertical MS survey and geophysics to compile an archaeological landscape
that extends across six landscape zones. More traditional - or more what most AARG members are used to - is the contribution by
Chris Musson and Toby Driver. Chris puts the case for oblique photography [and it was this workshop in Siena that led to the flying
school held there in 2001] and Toby outlines techniques of mapping and prides a range of case-studies, some of which do not have
accompanying illustrations. This may be a good thing - it is perhaps better not to publish than to publish at a uselessly small scale&?
Italian contributions make up the rest of the volume and show different applications of a variety of remotely sensed data - terrain
modelling, landscape and environmental studies - some low level survey (geophysics), and a demonstration of the use of GPS to record
and survey microrelief.
This book provides another, and different, statement of 'where we're at' but the papers concentrate more on use of the higher altitude
data and so make a useful companion to the NATO volume. It is interesting to extend comparison of the two books. Both were published
very soon after meetings, both are one in a series of volumes issued by the host body. So much for similarities & The Siena book is on
good-quality paper and mixes colour, monochrome and text in two of its printed sections (the 16-page thingies), it is a paperback, and it
is about half the price of the NATO book. Question: Is NATO ripping us off, or does UniSi subsidise its reports?
Contenuti:
Introduzione
Il Telerilevamento in Archeologia
Stefano Campana, Enzo Pranzini
Satellite Remote Sensing Applications
Livio Rossi, Fabio Volpe
Archeologia e remote sensing: geografia dei servizi e delle risorse in Internet
Stefano Campana
Telerilevamento e paesaggi archeologici tridimensionali
Maurizio Forte
High Resolution Aerial Color IR, Multi-Spectral, Hyper-Spectral and SAR Imagery over the Oatlands Plantation Archaeological
Site Near Leesburg, Virginia
Victor Failmezger
Landsat TM Imagery in Landscape Archaeology: Detection and Modeling
Richard M. Rothaus, Amber A. De Morett
Multispectral Remote Sensing for Archaeology
Daniel N.M. Donoghue
Studio del territorio quale strumento per investigare le relazioni tra siti archeologici e ambiente circostante
Neda Parmegiani, Maurizio Poscolieri
Il telerilevamento iperspettrale da aereo per lo studio dei beni archeologici: applicazione dei dati iperspettrali MIVIS
Rosa Maria Cavalli, Stefano Pignatti
The Heslerton Parish Project. An integrated multi-sensor approach to the archaeological study of Eastern Yorkshire,
England
Dominic Powlesland
Aerial archaeology and air photo mapping in Britain
Toby Driver, Chris Musson
Integrazione di metodi geofisici ad alta risoluzione per l’indagine nei siti archeologici
Salvatore Piro
La Planificación y la géstion del patrimonio. La herramienta geofísica
Luis Valdes
Introduzione all’uso dei GPS in Archeologia
Roberto Gabrielli
Curatori:
Stefano Campana
Dottorando in Archeologia Medievale
Dip. Archeologia e Storia delle Arti
Università di Siena
Via Roma 56
53100 Siena
e-mail: e-mail: campana@unisi.it
Maurizio Forte
Primo ricercatore
CNR, Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali
Via Salaria km.29,300, c.p.10
00016 Monterotondo St., Roma, Italy
e-mail: maurizio.forte@mlib.cnr.it
Enzo Pranzini
