Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:40:09.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stereo analysis, DEM extraction and orthorectification of CORONA satellite imagery: archaeological applications from the Near East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jesse Casana  and
Jackson Cothren
Jesse Casana
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA (Email: [email protected])
Jackson Cothren
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences and Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, 12 Ozark Hall, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

CORONA satellite imagery, preserving an account of the earth's surface from 40 years ago, is a most important archaeological survey tool and we have often sung its praises. Here the authors use new procedures to extend the competence and revelations of CORONA even further. Stereo pairs derived from images taken from fore and aft of the satellite give three dimensional images of landscapes and even individual sites. Techniques of modelling and rectification restore the sites to their original shape without recourse to survey on the ground – in many cases no longer possible since the sites have been buried, inundated or erased. The ingenuity shown here indicates that results from CORONA are only going to get better.

Keywords

Near Eastwest AsiaCRMresearch surveyssatellite surveyCORONAlandscape surveysite surveytell settlementshollow ways
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 317 , September 2008 , pp. 732 - 749
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alkim, U. B. 1969. The Amanus region in Turkey: new light on the historical geography and archaeology. Archaeology 22: 280–9.Google Scholar
Altmaier, A. & Kany, C.. 2002. Digital surface model generation from CORONA satellite images. ISPRS Journal ofphotogrammetry and remote sensing 56 (4): 221–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A., Philip, G., Abdülkarim, M. & Donoghue, D.. 2007. Evaluation of Corona and Ikonos high resolution satellite imagery for archaeological prospection in western Syria. Antiquity 81: 161–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casana, J. 2003. The archaeological landscape of Late Roman Antioch, in Huskinson, J.A.R. & Sandwell, B. (ed.) Culture andsocietyin Later Roman Antioch: 102–25. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Casana, J. 2007. Structural transformations in settlement systems of the northern Levant. American Journal of Archaeology 111: 195–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Challis, K. & Howard, A. J.. 2006. A review of trends within archaeological remote sensing in alluvial environments. Archaeological Prospection 13: 231–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Challis, K., Priestnall, G., Gardner, A., Henderson, J. & O'Hara, S.. 2002-2004. Corona remotely-sensed imagery in dryland archaeology: the Islamic city of al-Raqqa, Syria. Journal of Field Archaeology 29: 139–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dornemann, R. 1988. Tell Hadidi: one Bronze Age site among many in the Tabqa Dam salvage area. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 270: 13–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dornemann, R. 2003. Seven seasons of American Schools of Oriental Research excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria, 1993-1999, in Lapp, N. (ed.) Preliminaryexcavation reports and other archaeological excavations. Tell Qarqur, Iron I sites in the North-Central Highlands of Palestine. Boston (MA): American Schools of Oriental Research.Google Scholar
Fowler, M.J.F. 2004. Declassified CORONA KH-4B satellite photography of remains from Rome's desert frontier. International Journal of Remote Sensing 25 (18): 3549–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galiatsatos, N. 2004. Assessment of the CORONA series of satellite imagery for landscape archaeology: a case study from the Orontes valley, Syria. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Durham University.Google Scholar
Galiatsatos, N., Donoghüe, D. & Philip, G.. 2005. An evaluation of the stereoscopic capabilities of CORONA declassified spy satellite image data. Porto, Portugal: 25th EARSEl Symposium, Workshop on 3D Remote Sensing.Google Scholar
Gheyle, W., Trommelmans, R., Bourgeois, J., Goossens, R., Bourgeois, I., De Wulf, A. & Willems, T.. 2004. Evaluating CORONA: a case study in the Altai Republic (South Siberia). Antiquity 78: 391–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goossens, R., De Wulf, A., Bourgeois, J., Gheyle, W. & Willems, T.. 2006. Satellite imagery and archaeology: the example of CORONA in the Altai Mountains. Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (6): 745–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hritz, C. 2005. The changing archaeoscape of southern Mesopotamia, in Mehrer, M. & Wolcott, C. (ed.) G.I.S. andarchaeological site location modeling: 413–36. Boca Raton (FL): Taylor & Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, D. 1998. Declassified satellite photographs and archaeology in the Middle East: case studies from Turkey. Antiquity 72: 553–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kouchoukos, N. 2001. Satellite images and the representation of Near Eastern landscapes. Near Eastern Archaeology 64 (1/2): 80–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menze, B. H., Ur, J. A. & Sherratt, A. G.. 2006. Detection of ancient settlement mounds: archaeological survey based on the SRTM terrain model. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 72: 321–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philip, G., Donoghue, D., Beck, A. & Galiatsatos, N.. 2002. CORONA satellite photography: an archaeological application from the Middle East. Antiquity 76: 109–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philip, G., Abdulkarim, M., Newson, P., Beck, A., Bridgeland, D., Bshesh, M., Shaw, A., Westaway, R. & Wilkinson, K.. 2005. Settlement and landscape development in the Homs region, Syria: report on work undertaken during 2001-2003. Levant 37: 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pournelle, J. 2003. Marshland of cities: deltaic landscapes and the evolution of early Mesopotamian civilization. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar
Schenk, T., Csatho, B. & Shin, S. W.. 2003. Rigorous panoramic camera model for DISP Imagery. Joint ISPRS/EARSEL workshop ‘High resolution mapping from space 2003’, October 6-8.Google Scholar
Sohn, H. G., Kim, G. H. & Yom, J. H.. 2004. Mathematical modelling of historical reconnaissance Corona KH-4B Imagery. The Photogrammetric Record 19 (105): 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 1993. Linear hollows in the Jazireh, Upper Mesopotamia. Antiquity 67: 548–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 1994. The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in Upper Mesopotamia. Current Anthropology 35: 483–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2003. Archaeologicallandscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2005. Excavations at Tell Es-Sweyhat, Syria Volume 1. On the margin of the Euphrates: settlement and land use at Tell es-Sweyhat and in the Upper Lake Assad area, Syria. Chicago: Oriental Institute Press.Google Scholar
United States Geologic Survey, Eros Data Center. 1996. Declassified satellite imagery -1 (1996). Available at: http://edc.usgs.gov/guides/disp1.html#disp12 [last accessed 24 September 2007].Google Scholar
Ur, J. A. 2003. CORONA satellite photography and ancient road networks: a northern Mesopotamian case study. Antiquity 77: 102–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ur, J. A. 2005. Sennacherib's Northern Assyrian canals: new insights from satellite imagery and aerial photography. Iraq 67: 317–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Liere, W. J. & Lauffray, J.. 1954-1955. Nouvelle prospection archéologique dans la Haute Jazireh syrienne. Annales archéologiques arabes syriennes 4/5: 129–48.Google Scholar
Wolf, P. R. & Dewitt, B. A.. 2000. Elements of photogrammetry with applications in GIS (third edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar