Drones in the desert: Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle (UAV) survey in the Black Desert, Jordan

Summary

Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and photogrammetry provide a precise tool for high resolution surveys of arid landscapes. In 2016, as part of the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, we undertook a large survey (32 km2) in the remote Black Desert of eastern Jordan. Although excavation has been ongoing in the survey area for several years, many extant Neolithic structures have not been properly mapped or identified because of the large number of structures and the large scale of the area. For the most part, these stone structures are too small to be effectively mapped by satellite imagery and too spread out to be effectively mapped using traditional terrestrial survey tools. Our survey provides important documentation of the archaeological landscape and a tool for decision making on future work in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Earth Observation for Archaeology in Arid Lands

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16258