Drone-Acquired Thermal and Multispectral Imagery as a Tool in Archaeological Prospection

Summary

This paper presents results of recent research at several sites in North America and the Middle East in which aerial surveys have been undertaken using an advanced radiometric thermal camera and a multispectral sensor mounted on commercial-grade drones. While using drone-acquired color photography to produce ortho-imagery and digital surface models has become an increasingly standard practice in archaeology, thermal and near-infrared imaging offers the potential to detect both surface and sub-surface archaeological features including architecture, earthworks, and artifact concentrations. Overviewing instrumentation, survey strategies, and processing methodologies, our results from fieldwork at sites including Khani Masi (Iraq), Tlaxcala (Mexico), Poushoquinge (New Mexico), and the Enfield Shaker Village (New Hampshire), demonstrate both possibilities and challenges of this emerging approach to archaeological investigation. Analysis reveals a great deal regarding the surveyed sites, and offers researchers a powerful means to explore the archaeological landscape in a way that is rapid, inexpensive, and non-destructive.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22477