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High-Resolution Imagery and the Recovery of Surface Architectural Patterns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2017

Elizabeth C. Stone
Elizabeth C. Stone*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364 ([email protected])
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Abstract

In large arid floodplains, like that of southern Iraq, the rise of the water table associated with irrigation can result in surface salt concentrations over the remains of subsurface architecture. These traces are visible only from the air but are sometimes captured by commercially available submeter pixel imagery. This article describes the methods used and some of the results of a project using QuickBird, WorldView-1, and WorldView-2 imagery to investigate settlement systems in southern Mesopotamia dating between the fourth and first millennia B.C. Following a discussion of methods used to better predict which images of which sites will produce the desired results, a brief exploration of key anthropological questions that these data allow us now to ask will be presented.

En las grandes llanuras de inundación áridas, como que en el sur de Irak, el ascenso de la capa freática asociada con riego puede dar lugar a concentraciones de sal de la superficie sobre los restos de la arquitectura bajo la superficie. Estos rastros son sólo visibles desde el aire, pero a veces son capturados por las imágenes disponibles en el mercado de píxeles inferior a un metro. Este artículo describe los dos métodos utilizados y algunos de los resultados de un proyecto usando QuickBird, WorldView-1 y -2 Cosmovisión imaginería para investigar los sistemas de liquidación en el sur de Mesopotamia que datan entre el cuarto y el primer milenio antes de Cristo. Después de una discusión de los métodos que se utilizan para predecir mejor qué imágenes de los sitios que van a producir los resultados deseados, se presentará una breve exploración de cuestiones antropológicas fundamentales que estos datos nos permiten ahora a preguntar.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 2 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Digital Domains , August 2014 , pp. 180 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2014

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