Satellite Remote Sensing of Archaeological Vegetation Signatures in Coastal West Africa

This article discusses how archaeological sites in Sierra Leone, and by extension much of West Africa, can be identified through vegetation patterns (vegetation signatures) detectable in very high-resolution (VHR) multispectral satellite imagery. Settlement sites typically have a differing pattern of vegetation from the surrounding landscape, including concentrations of very large trees with sociocultural and historical significance: cotton (Ceiba pentandra) and baobab (Adansonia digitata). These features are conspicuous elements of the landscape both from the ground and in aerial imagery. Two complementary methods of using VHR multispectral satellite imagery are discussed in this paper: visual interpretation and semi-automated subpixel classification. These techniques are aiding ongoing archaeological survey of the Sierra Leone River Estuary. The impact of recently renewed industrial activity at a site of probable archaeological significance is also assessed through visually interpreted VHR satellite imagery.     

Contributions of GIS and Satellite-based Remote Sensing to Landscape Archaeology in the Middle East

This article explores the coevolution of landscape approaches and geospatial tools in Middle Eastern archaeology. From the first aerial reconnaissance programs, archaeologists recognized the value of a view from above to address overarching human–environmental questions that underpin regional historical narratives. The diversity and density of visible remains in the landscape of the Middle East has required an integrative approach, encompassed in the perspective of landscape as a static artifact, landscape as built features, landscape as a system, and landscape as a dynamic construct, which cuts across modern political boundaries. Recent advances in geospatial tools and datasets have enabled archaeologists to make significant progress on four long-standing questions of how to (1) best document and manage rapidly disappearing ancient landscapes, (2) understand landscape formation processes, (3) identify and interpret economic, environmental, and social influences that result in long-term settlement and land use patterns, and (4) recognize and contextualize the interplay between environment and human agency in the evolution of ancient economies and transformations in socio-organizational complexity.     

Remote Sensing and Archaeological Prospection in Apulia,Italy

Abstract

When deployed in combination with ground control, archaeological surface survey, and environmental research, remote sensing based upon high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery allows large areas to be evaluated efficiently by a small team of researchers and contributes to a better understanding of an archaeological landscape. In 2007 and 2008, we analyzed ca. 100 sq km of imagery centered on L'Amastuola, Italy. Combining the evaluation of high-resolution multispectral imagery with concurrent ground control led to the discovery of 29 sites and significant off-site scatters during about four weeks of fieldwork. Our analysis indicates that most of the detected features reflect geological conditions amenable to past human habitation rather than subsurface archaeological remains. Earlier fieldwork by the Murge Tableland Survey (MTS) provided independent definitions for various types of sites and a large sample of sites and off-site scatters in the study area. Comparison of our remote-sensing guided efforts with the results of that survey suggests that our success rate is too high to be explained by random association and also illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of the respective methods, underscoring the need to integrate satellite image analysis with ground control and surface survey.     

Large-Area Remote Sensing Coverage of Archaeological Sites with a Dual-Track Cart-Mounted Cesium Magnetometer

Abstract

This paper describes the benefits of collecting total field magnetic data at archaeological sites with a mobile cart holding two cesium magnetometer sensors and a separate stationary base station magnetometer to correct for global-scale magnetic fluctuations. To date, the Texas Historical Commission has surveyed 40 sites from various time periods and geographical settings in Texas. The cart has allowed rapid surveys over large areas while minimizing signal-degrading noise. Four examples from Texas show that large-area and high-density magnetic surveys can be completed in relatively short periods of time producing maps that aid significantly in archaeological site interpretation. In some instances, no field excavation was required to understand quickly what the magnetic patterns represented in terms of buried archaeological features. In all cases, the magnetometer maps provided important information to help guide future field excavations.     

Under New Management: What the Arab Spring Tells Us About Leadership Needs in the Middle East and North Africa

Leadership analysis examines how political heads and managers of public sector organizations can employ styles that will dovetail with the aspirations and energy of their country's inhabitants. Uncovering leadership models capable of channeling growth and productivity in this manner within Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) settings is essential to the stability of the region. Turbulent change in a globalizing environment continues to deepen this realization. And the ongoing effects of the Arab Spring highlight the importance of such an undertaking. Clearing a path toward establishing the necessary cultural congruence among administrative processes, tools, solutions, and people is a prerequisite to success that rests on identifying indigenously acceptable approaches to change. Engaging authentic leadership to guide successful achievement of new public management and new public governance goals offers one way to both envision and construct ongoing balance in the future.     

Expanding the Dimensions of Early Agricultural Tells: The Podgoritsa Archaeological Project,Bulgaria

Abstract

A single season of field work was carried out in 1995 at the Podgoritsa Tell, an Eneolithic (5th millennium B.C.) settlement mound located between the villages of Dralfa and Podgoritsa in the Turgovishte region of NE Bulgaria. Results provide significant new data about the physical and social dimensions of early agricultural settlement tells in SE Europe. Most important is the first discovery of architectural structures and activity areas located outside of the topographic circumference of an Eneolithic tell. Additional, and equally unprecedented, information from geophysical and soil coring investigations proves that the land around the Podgoritsa site went through cycles of use and disuse. These cycles were determined by variations in the level of the local water table. Evidence of a bank and ditch structure on the western edge of the tell raises the possibility that the site's inhabitants may have been actively managing local water supplies. The firm evidence for off-tell activity (which explodes the myth that the modern visible topographic limits of a tell represent the limits of activity) and the possibility of 5th millennium hydrological engineering have important consequences not only for our understanding of the SE European Copper Age but also or future strategies of tell excavation across SE Europe and western Asia.     

“天眼”看透古河山 遥感与GIS支持的洛阳盆地聚落与环境考古

<正>洛阳盆地位于河南省西北部,四面环山,东南及南部有嵩山及其余脉万安山,秦岭山系崤山支脉的周山和邙山分别位于盆地的西部与北部。盆地内地势平坦,河网较多,水源较为充足,作为主要水系的洛河与伊河自西南向东横贯盆地,在盆地东部汇合为伊洛河,再向东北最后注入黄河。洛阳盆地在地质学上属拗陷盆地,内部南、北高,中间低,略呈东西狭长的槽形。盆地内的地势自西向     

The Superpowers in the Middle East

RAMI GINAT. The Soviet Union and Egypt, 1945–1955. London: Frank Cass, dist. Portland, OR: ISBS, 1993. Pp. xii, 268. $45.00 (US);

ABRAHAM BEN-ZVL The United States and Israel: The Limits of the Special Relationship. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 312. $35.00 (US).     

Books about the Middle East for Young Children

Book reviewed in this article: Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem Adèle Geras The Hundredth Name Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, Illustrated byMichael Hays When Solomon Was King, Sheila McGill-Callahan Illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson Lebanon: New Light in an Ancient Lan, Elsa Marston Lebanon, Leila Merrell Foster Iran in Pictures     

Geophysical Methods for Wreck‐Site Monitoring: the Rapid Archaeological Site Surveying and Evaluation (RASSE) programme

Rapid advances in geophysical techniques over the past decade have provided the maritime archaeological community with significant opportunities for re‐defining the procedures for wreck‐site mapping, evaluation and monitoring. The techniques which offer most potential for high‐resolution survey are acoustic‐based and include sidescan sonar, swath‐bathymetry sonar and multibeam sonar. These techniques were tested on an artificial test‐site in Plymouth Sound and over the wreck of the Stirling Castle. Results demonstrate that the techniques can provide the maritime archaeologist with the opportunity to rapidly and cost‐effectively map and monitor small, centimetric changes on sites, with the potential for long‐term monitoring and management. © 2009 The Authors     

Monitoring and Mitigation Works in Unsaturated Archaeological Deposits

Monitoring of the archaeological deposits at the World Heritage Site Bryggen in Bergen has been ongoing since 2001. In latter years a large-scale project of mitigation works has been carried out, resulting in the creation of a water-management system aimed at raising groundwater-levels and increasing soil moisture content in areas with poor preservation conditions. Oxygen is a key parameter in the decay of archaeological material in the unsaturated zone, and the monitoring at Bryggen includes in situ monitoring of oxygen concentrations and comparison to soil moisture content, temperature, groundwater-level, precipitation and soil reactivity. This is used to document where and when decay takes place and to estimate “how wet is wet enough” in order to reduce the oxygen diffusion and the decay rate to an acceptable level. The results show that even small changes in the soil moisture can have a large impact on the oxygen dynamics in the ground.