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Drones
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(Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs
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(Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 44522

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Geert Verhoeven

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 (Room A5.04), 1190 Vienna, Austria
Interests: terrestrial and airborne photography plus multi- and hyperspectral imaging; image-based 3D modelling; image fusion; scientific visualisations; digital archaeology; landscape archaeology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Systems (UAVs/UASs), also referred to as Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems (RPASs) or drones, have been used in archaeological research for at least three decades. However, ongoing research in the fields of robotics and geomatics, the proliferation of multicopters and flying wings, hardware price reductions and the miniaturization of various (imaging) sensors have significantly increased and improved the application of these platforms in the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage. From their use as prospection devices (to find out what lurks below the ground) to their application as cost-effective and highly maneuverable documentation platforms (for photographing or scanning difficult to access locations), UAVs have indeed altered and democratized many aspects of archaeological geospatial data collection in the past decades. However, this does not automatically mean that these high-tech tools are increasingly revolutionizing archaeology, as is often claimed. Many projects still use drones merely as convenient bird’s-eye view devices for the occasional collection of snapshots, potentially driven by the need to follow current trends in digital archaeology and digital humanities. In addition to these rather theoretical concerns, many practical issues and potential obstacles remain. For example, the rise of UAVs as flexible sensing platforms has in turn brought about safety and privacy concerns. Moreover, the non-expert’s perception of UAV-driven applications still balances somewhere between the controversy surrounding military drones and the fascination for pizza-delivering unmanned aircrafts.

This Special Issue of Drones seeks exceptional papers that explore and illustrate the breadth of avenues for UAVs in archaeological research, presenting appropriate theoretical and practical assessments, as well as recent original research of archaeological drone usage. Rather than another contribution on basic 3D surface model extraction from a collection of drone images, authors are encouraged to submit innovative papers showcasing how these unmanned motorized airborne platforms can currently transform the acquisition of archaeological knowledge. In this way, this Special Issue of Drones will compile a collection of high-impact papers that delineate the remote sensing potential and unique applications of UAVs in archaeology. Such a volume will not only (re)define the state-of-the-art in the archaeologically-relevant use of any type of unmanned motorized airborne platform, it also holds the potential to pave the way for furthering accurate, realistic, reliable, and relevant research in the nascent field of drone-based archaeological sensing.

Dr. Geert J. Verhoeven
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Archaeology
  • Ancient monuments
  • Landscape archaeology
  • Heritage documentation
  • Airborne remote sensing
  • Airborne geophysics
  • Monochromatic, multi- and hyper-spectral reflectance and thermal imaging
  • Data fusion

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4938 KiB  
Article
The Application of RGB, Multispectral, and Thermal Imagery to Document and Monitor Archaeological Sites in the Arctic: A Case Study from South Greenland
by Jørgen Hollesen, Malte Skov Jepsen and Hans Harmsen
Drones 2023, 7(2), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7020115 - 8 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3908
Abstract
Over the past decades, climate change has accelerated the deterioration of heritage sites and archaeological resources in Arctic and subarctic landscapes. At the same time, increased tourism and growing numbers of site visitors contribute to the degradation and manipulation of archaeological sites. This [...] Read more.
Over the past decades, climate change has accelerated the deterioration of heritage sites and archaeological resources in Arctic and subarctic landscapes. At the same time, increased tourism and growing numbers of site visitors contribute to the degradation and manipulation of archaeological sites. This situation has created an urgent need for new, quick, and non-invasive tools and methodologies that can help cultural heritage managers detect, monitor, and mitigate vulnerable sites. In this context, remote sensing and the applications of UAVs could play an important role. Here, we used a drone equipped with an RGB camera and a single multispectral/thermal camera to test different possible archeological applications at two well-known archaeological sites in the UNESCO World Heritage area of Kujataa in south Greenland. The data collected were used to test the potential of using the cameras for mapping (1) ruins and structures, (2) the impact of human activity, and (3) soil moisture variability. Our results showed that a combination of RGB and digital surface models offers very useful information to identify and map ruins and structures at the study sites. Furthermore, a combination of RGB and NDVI maps seems to be the best method to monitor wear and tear on the vegetation caused by visitors. Finally, we tried to estimate the surface soil moisture content based on temperature rise and the Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI), but did not achieve any meaningful connection between TVDI and on-site soil moisture measurements. Ultimately, our results pointed to a limited archaeological applicability of the TVDI method in Arctic contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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21 pages, 104609 KiB  
Article
In the Heat of the Night: Comparative Assessment of Drone Thermography at the Archaeological Sites of Acquarossa, Italy, and Siegerswoude, The Netherlands
by Jitte Waagen, Jesús García Sánchez, Menno van der Heiden, Aaricia Kuiters and Patricia Lulof
Drones 2022, 6(7), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6070165 - 1 Jul 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3008
Abstract
Although drone thermography is increasingly applied as an archaeological remote sensing tool in the last few years, the technique and methods are still relatively under investigated. No doubt there are successes in positive identification of buried archaeology, and the prospection technique has clear [...] Read more.
Although drone thermography is increasingly applied as an archaeological remote sensing tool in the last few years, the technique and methods are still relatively under investigated. No doubt there are successes in positive identification of buried archaeology, and the prospection technique has clear complementary value. Nevertheless, there are also instances where thermograms did not reveal present shallow buried architectural features which had been clearly identified by, for example, ground-penetrating radar. The other way around, there are cases where the technique was able to pick up a signals of buried archaeology at a time of day that is supposed to be very unfavorable for thermographic recording. The main issue here is that the exact factors determining the potential for tracing thermal signatures of anthropomorphic interventions in the soil are many, and their effect, context, and interaction under investigated. This paper deals with a systematic application of drone thermography on two archaeological sites in different soils and climates, one in The Netherlands, and one in Italy, to investigate important variables that can make the prospection technique effective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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24 pages, 4657 KiB  
Article
Examples and Results of Aerial Photogrammetry in Archeology with UAV: Geometric Documentation, High Resolution Multispectral Analysis, Models and 3D Printing
by José Ignacio Fiz, Pere Manel Martín, Rosa Cuesta, Eva Subías, Dolors Codina and Antoni Cartes
Drones 2022, 6(3), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6030059 - 24 Feb 2022
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6135
Abstract
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones or RPA) in archaeology has expanded significantly over the last twenty years. Improvements in terms of the reliability, size, and manageability of these aircraft have been largely complemented by the high resolution [...] Read more.
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones or RPA) in archaeology has expanded significantly over the last twenty years. Improvements in terms of the reliability, size, and manageability of these aircraft have been largely complemented by the high resolution and spectral bands provided by the sensors of the different cameras that can be incorporated into their structure. If we add to this the functionalities and improvements that photogrammetry programs have been experiencing in recent years, we can conclude that there has been a qualitative leap in the possibilities, not only of geometric documentation and in the presentation of the archaeological data, but in the incorporation of non-intrusive high-resolution analytics. The work that we present here gives a sample of the possibilities of both geometric documentation, creation of 3D models, their subsequent printing with different materials, and techniques to finally show a series of analytics from images with NGB (Nir + Green + Blue), Red Edge, and Thermographic cameras applied to various archaeological sites in which our team has been working since 2013, such as Clunia (Peñalba de Castro, Burgos), Puig Rom (Roses), Vilanera (L’Escala, Girona), and Cosa (Ansedonia, Italy). All of them correspond to different chronological periods as well as to varied geographical and morphological environments, which will lead us to propose the search for adequate solutions for each of the environments. In the discussions, we will propose the lines of research to be followed in a project of these characteristics, as well as some results that can already be viewed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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16 pages, 8619 KiB  
Article
UAV Photogrammetry and GIS Interpretations of Extended Archaeological Contexts: The Case of Tacuil in the Calchaquí Area (Argentina)
by Carolina Orsini, Elisa Benozzi, Veronica Williams, Paolo Rossi and Francesco Mancini
Drones 2022, 6(2), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6020031 - 20 Jan 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4289
Abstract
The scope and scientific purpose of this paper focuses on multiscale (aerial and terrestrial) photogrammetry as a support to investigations and interpretations in a multi-component archaeological site located in the Argentinian Cordillera (Calchaquí, Salta), known as Tacuil. Due to its scarce accessibility, as [...] Read more.
The scope and scientific purpose of this paper focuses on multiscale (aerial and terrestrial) photogrammetry as a support to investigations and interpretations in a multi-component archaeological site located in the Argentinian Cordillera (Calchaquí, Salta), known as Tacuil. Due to its scarce accessibility, as well as long-term problems associated with the interpretation of the visibility of this type of settlement, the use of aerial surveying was combined with the reconstruction of structures and complex soil morphologies by resorting to modern photogrammetric approaches (3D models and orthophotos). This dataset was complemented by a terrestrial survey to obtain extremely high resolution and detailed representations of archaeological features that were integrated in a GIS database. The outcome of photogrammetric surveying was fundamental in supporting the debate on the functionality of the site and his integration in a complex, socially constructed, ancient landscape. Finally, the present paper introduces the first complete map of Tacuil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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23 pages, 11254 KiB  
Article
The Potential of Drones and Sensors to Enhance Detection of Archaeological Cropmarks: A Comparative Study Between Multi-Spectral and Thermal Imagery
by Paula Uribe Agudo, Jorge Angás Pajas, Fernando Pérez-Cabello, Jaime Vicente Redón and Beatriz Ezquerra Lebrón
Drones 2018, 2(3), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones2030029 - 29 Aug 2018
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 8176
Abstract
This paper presents experimentation carried out at the Roman Republican city of La Caridad (Teruel, Spain), where different tools have been applied to obtain multispectral and thermal aerial images to enhance detection of archaeological cropmarks. Two different drone systems were used: a Mikrokopter [...] Read more.
This paper presents experimentation carried out at the Roman Republican city of La Caridad (Teruel, Spain), where different tools have been applied to obtain multispectral and thermal aerial images to enhance detection of archaeological cropmarks. Two different drone systems were used: a Mikrokopter designed by Tecnitop SA (Zaragoza, Spain) and an eBee produced by SenseFly Company (Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland). Thus, in this study, we have combined in-house manufacturing with commercial products. Six drone sensors were tested and compared in terms of their ability to identify buried remains in archaeological settlements by means of visual recognition. The sensors have different spectral ranges and spatial resolutions. This paper compares the images captured with different spectral range sensors to test the potential of this technology for archaeological benefits. The method used for the comparison of the tools has been based on direct visual inspection, as in traditional aerial archaeology. Through interpretation of the resulting data, our aim has been to determine which drones and sensors obtained the best results in the visualization of archaeological cropmarks. The experiment in La Caridad therefore demonstrates the benefit of using drones with different sensors to monitor archaeological cropmarks for a more cost-effective assessment, best spatial resolution and digital recording of buried archaeological remains. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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14 pages, 83000 KiB  
Article
Debitage and Drones: Classifying and Characterising Neolithic Stone Tool Production in the Shetland Islands Using High Resolution Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery
by William Megarry, Conor Graham, Bernard Gilhooly, Brendan O’Neill, Rob Sands, Astrid Nyland and Gabriel Cooney
Drones 2018, 2(2), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones2020012 - 22 Mar 2018
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6408
Abstract
The application of high-resolution imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to classify the spatial extent and morphological character of ground and polished stone tool production at quarry sites in the Shetland Islands is explored in this paper. These sites are manifest as dense [...] Read more.
The application of high-resolution imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to classify the spatial extent and morphological character of ground and polished stone tool production at quarry sites in the Shetland Islands is explored in this paper. These sites are manifest as dense concentrations of felsite and artefacts clearly visible on the surface of the landscape. Supervised classification techniques are applied to map material extents in detail, while a topological analysis of surface rugosity derived from an image-based modelling (IBM) generated high-resolution elevation model is used to remotely assess the size and morphology of the material. While the approach is unable to directly characterize felsite as debitage, it successfully captured size and morphology, key indicators of archaeological activity. It is proposed that the classification of red, green and blue (RGB) imagery and rugosity analysis derived from IBM from UAV collected photographs can remotely provide data on stone quarrying processes and can act as an invaluable decision support tool for more detailed targeted field characterisation, especially on large sites where material is spread over wide areas. It is suggested that while often available, approaches like this are largely under-utilized, and there is considerable added value to be gained from a more in-depth study of UAV imagery and derived datasets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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5466 KiB  
Article
UAVs in Context: Archaeological Airborne Recording in a National Body of Survey and Record
by David C. Cowley, Charles Moriarty, George Geddes, Georgina L. Brown, Tom Wade and Caroline J. Nichol
Drones 2018, 2(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones2010002 - 23 Dec 2017
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 8592
Abstract
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body which investigates, promotes and cares for the historic environment in Scotland. It undertakes a range of archaeological airborne work from detailed documentation of individual sites to extensive national programmes of prospection. In undertaking this [...] Read more.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body which investigates, promotes and cares for the historic environment in Scotland. It undertakes a range of archaeological airborne work from detailed documentation of individual sites to extensive national programmes of prospection. In undertaking this work HES draws on a variety of aerial platforms to collect imagery, including light aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV—used throughout this paper as an umbrella term). In all cases, the archaeological questions at hand are the key driver for choice of methodology and platforms, recognising that different types of survey and documentation demand different responses. Differing strands of aerial work will be briefly described, followed by short case studies that illustrate the range of our activities, concluding with thoughts on the context of UAV work for archaeological applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Defining the Archaeological Use of UAVs)
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