Archaeological Prospection最新文献

Egypt is a distinctive country in terms of its rich and unique tangible cultural heritage including monuments and archaeological sites distributed across the country. Many monuments and archaeological sites are facing a variety of climate change-associated hazards with a wide range of cross-sectoral impacts. This research intends to identify climate change-associated hazards on tangible cultural heritage in Egypt, highlighting the main areas of concern. For this purpose, a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based methodology is utilized, beginning with defining a framework for hazard identification. This is followed by developing a geospatial database of tangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, expected changes in relevant climate parameters under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario up to 2065 were profiled. Thereafter, a geospatial database of existing tangible cultural heritage in Egypt as well as current and future climate parameters are employed to examine the exposure of archaeological heritage in Egypt to various climate change-associated hazards up to the year 2065. It was found that the tangible cultural heritage sites in Egypt, accounting for 205 sites, are exposed to specific or combined levels of climate change-associated hazards depending on their geographic settings. In this respect, it was found that 25% of archaeological sites in Egypt are susceptible to combined high to moderate temperature ranges and humid conditions as a result of climate change up to 2065. This highlights the need for developing archaeological site conservation strategies based not only on current conservation needs, including anthropogenic and environmental stressors, but also on climate change-associated hazards. Such a strategy needs to prioritize different cultural heritage assets actions according to their uniqueness as well as associated direct and indirect benefits.

Lidar datasets have been crucial for documenting the scale and nature of human ecosystem engineering and land use. Automated analysis methods, which have been rising in popularity and efficiency, allow for systematic evaluations of vast landscapes. Here, we use a Mask R-CNN deep learning model to evaluate terracing—artificially flattened areas surrounded by steeper slopes—on islands in American Sāmoa. Mask R-CNN is notable for its ability to simultaneously perform detection and segmentation tasks related to object recognition, thereby providing robust datasets of both geographic locations of terracing features and their spatial morphometry. Using training datasets from across American Sāmoa, we train this model to recognize terracing features and then apply it to the island of Tutuila to undertake an island-wide survey for terrace locations, distributions and morphologies. We demonstrate that this model is effective (F1 = 0.718), but limitations are also documented that relate to the quality of the lidar data and the size of terracing features. Our data show that the islands of American Sāmoa display shared patterns of terracing, but the nature of these patterns are distinct on Tutuila compared with the Manu'a island group. These patterns speak to the different interior configurations of the islands. This study demonstrates how deep learning provides a better understanding of landscape construction and behavioural patterning on Tutuila and has the capacity to expand our understanding of these processes on other islands beyond our case study.

Geoarchaeological prospection techniques were applied to identify activity zones and the inner structure of a homestead at the Early Mediaeval site Pohansko near Břeclav (Czechia). By a combination of geophysical methods, the spatial distribution of microartefacts, geochemical analysis and multivariate statistical analysis, we outlined various manifestations of anthropogenic activity. We examined obtained data by Spearman's correlation coefficient, spatial autocorrelation (Global Moran's I) and robust Principal component analysis to identify the spatial pattern of the area. Recognized joint presence of heavy metals (Pb, Zn and Cu) and elements related mostly to organic matter, waste and ashes (S, P and Ca) as well as a small number of slag fragments probably indicate presence of metalworking zones or mixed zones with domestic and industrial debris at the homestead. Further anthropogenic activities could be connected to manuring, animal management or some kind of production activities based on the presence of Mn, P and Cu. Bone and charcoal concentrations supplement the information of geochemical analysis and may indicate the manner of waste management in the peripheral parts of the homestead. In the middle of the homestead, the location of archaeological features indicates an open space in which no specific activity was detected. By means of magnetic susceptibility and judging from the presence of daub, we defined the potential presence of non-sunken features, which were not recognized by magnetometry. The outcome of the study is yet to be verified by excavation.

An extensive magnetic survey has been carried out on a large part of the Roman and late antique city of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain), combined with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electric resistivity imaging (ER Imaging) to obtain data for a better understanding of the ancient city.

For magnetic measurements, the 7-probe fluxgate gradiometer array was used. The GPR data were collected by means of a system equipped with two dual-frequency antenna boxes of 200 and 600 MHz, respectively.

The geophysical data provide some new insights into the layout of the city, with the identification of numerous structures in areas that are still unexplored by archaeological investigation. The results fill the gap of previous partial geophysical surveys and show an interesting, unseen image of ancient Pollentia.

Contrasts in electromagnetic properties between the target feature and surrounding soil are of importance for detection of archaeological features with Ground Penetrating Radar. These vary because of changing climatic conditions and soil type and are currently poorly understood. Long-term in situ monitoring of apparent relative dielectric permittivity, bulk electrical conductivity and soil temperature over two archaeological ditch features on sites with different soil types (one clay and one free draining) was employed to understand the detection dynamics and processes by which these properties change over time. Results were correlated with geotechnical properties of the soil for both archaeological ditchfills and the surrounding natural soil matrix and previously derived laboratory relationships between water content, temperature and geophysical properties to find the timing and reasons for the optimum geophysical contrasts. Monitoring included two distinct, relatively stable periods: one wet and one dry. In contrast to previous perception that there are significant differences in infiltration between the ditch and surrounding natural soil, time-lagged correlation analysis showed no significant differences in infiltration speed. The key differences between archaeological and natural soils were the amount of water held in a saturated state, the rates at which the different soils dried and the temperature. Thus, the optimum time for surveys was after a sustained period of several days of hot (>15°C) weather, which accentuates both water content and temperature contrasts. However, on freely draining sites that had a greater difference in the soil texture and therefore water holding capacity between the archaeological and natural soils, the timing is less critical.

Cultural heritage in coastal or shallow aquatic environments is often located in areas where access is difficult or where accurate survey and documentation may not always be possible with terrestrial or aquatic equipment. The combination of photogrammetry and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) generates a range of possibilities across multiple sectors, including history, ethnography and cultural heritage studies. Additionally, these methods can be used to prospect new archaeological sites. This article presents three case studies that use UAV techniques and Structure from Motion and Multiview Stereo (SfM-MVS) photogrammetry to conduct topographic and geometric registrations of archaeological, historical and ethnographic sites (some of which are classified as cultural heritage sites). These examples are located in coastal or shallow aquatic environments that are difficult to survey with traditional methods. The results show that it is possible to carry out detailed geometric registration and heritage prospection over large coastal or shallow aquatic environments using a low-cost UAV. Furthermore, the results of this work show great advantages in terms of cost and quality, even in cases where the seabed is below a shallow water column. Other particularities of SfM-MVS application in aquatic environments are discussed. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this methodology will offer new possibilities for the study, restoration and conservation of archaeological, historical and ethnographic monuments.

This paper presents the results of geophysical surveys conducted within two castles in central Iberia: the fortifications of Molina de Aragón and Atienza, both located within the modern province of Guadalajara in Spain. They represent essential case studies for understanding the transformations of the frontier societies of medieval south-western Europe, because both were founded during the Andalusi period, both played a fundamental role at the time of the military confrontations between opposing Islamic and Christian states, and both became capitals within the feudal dependencies of the Crown of Castile during the Late Middle Ages. At present, these castles are uninhabited and protected archaeological sites, with no modern developments within their wards; the adjacent towns have developed on the outskirts of their outer walls. Although both castles have been the focus of uneven amounts of archaeological research, geophysical surveys, the first conducted at these sites, have proved to be a fundamental tool not only for planning future archaeological investigations but also for the data that they have provided on the potential roles of these castle wards.

Climate change effects along with anthropogenic activities present the main factors that threaten the existence of heritage sites across the north Nile Delta of Egypt close to the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. Observing the changes in the landscape close to the archaeological sites is an important issue for decision-makers in terms of reducing the negative impact of natural events and human activities. The coastal heritage sites are becoming strongly threatened by the rising sea level phenomena that will happen due to global warming. Focusing on the distribution of the archaeological sites, this study aims to detect the areas at risk of shoreline erosion or accretion in the northern shoreline of the Nile Delta. In this study, the changes in the northern shoreline of the Nile Delta were observed and calculated during the last hundred years based on the integration between the old topographic maps from surveys in 1900, 1925 and 1945, optical satellite images captured by Landsat in 1972, 1986 and 2000; Sentinel2 2021; and the Radar SRTM data. The results of this study showed that the changes were enormous with a great shoreline erosion process over the last 121 years recorded along the shoreline in the periods between 1900–1925, 1925–1945, 1945–1972, 1972–1986, 1986–2000 and 2000–2021. The areas eroded were about 5.3, 4.7, 5.6, 8.9, 2.5 and 5.4 km², respectively. Such negative movements caused the loss of two heritage sites, and the expected changes will lead to the loss of additional heritage sites in the next 500 years. Furthermore, a model was suggested for protecting the coastal heritage sites threatened by the risk of submergence. This study can help the decision-makers to detect the coastal archaeological sites at risk and create innovative solutions for protecting these irreplaceable heritage sites.

A large number of ancient remnants from the Angkor kingdom of the 15th–19th centuries are widely observable across present day north-eastern Thailand and Cambodia. Archaeologically, these features represent the ancient communities and were possibly connected according to various socioeconomic reasons. In order to reconstruct the route of human mobility between the remains, the geographic information system (GIS)-based least cost path (LCP) analysis was employed along the Angkor–Phimai route. By recognizing the geographic parameters, the mobility of 292 moated sites was tracked to eight mountain passes that traverse the barrier of the Dângrêk Mountain Range. The LCP-derived routes revealed that the Ta Muen pass was the most suitable (shortest source-to-site distance) route for almost all moated sites. When compared with a previous interpretation of the Angkorian Royal Road route, our LCP route conforms reasonably well when overlaid with this possible Royal Road. The locations of ancient activities were also in the vicinity of the dense LCP route, and most monuments were located within a 1.5 km buffer line. This underlines that the LCP track obtained in this study is reasonable with a high reliability and is beneficial for guiding further studies to find out more about the ancient remains or archaeological evidence in this area.

Geologists have long valued satellite imagery in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) part of the electromagnetic spectrum (1100–2500 nm) because it can reveal subtle differences in minerology and soil moisture that are otherwise invisible, but the low spatial resolution (20-30 m) of publicly available SWIR imagery has limited its utility for archaeological investigations. As part of a NASA-funded research project, this paper presents results of an effort to evaluate the potential of higher resolution (3.7 m), 8-band SWIR imagery from the WorldView-3 satellite programme to aid in the identification and mapping of archaeological sites and landscape features in the Fertile Crescent. With case studies in the Amuq Plain of southern Turkey, the Khabur Plain of eastern Syria, and the Diyala Plain of southern Iraq, we utilize several methods including experiments with numerous band combinations, production of band ratios designed for crop cover analysis and support vector machine (SVM) classification techniques to enhance site visibility in multispectral SWIR imagery. Results reveal some of the seasonal, land use/cover and other factors that can impact the visibility of archaeological sites and features, demonstrating the potential and pitfalls of this emerging remote sensing resource.