The application of satellite imagery in the landscape archaeology in the Near East 

MSCA postdoctoral fellow Nazarij Buławka was invited yesterday to present on the “Seminar II: Near East Archaeology” of the “Master’s on Bioarchaeology and/or Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology” at the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw (picture by Miron Bogacki for the University of Warsaw):

The application of satellite imagery in the landscape archaeology in the Near East. UnderTheSands case study: Gorgan plain in Iran 

The presentation provided an introduction to remote sensing for the Master’s and PhD students at the “Near East Archaeology” seminar at the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw. The most important types of applications of satellite imagery in the landscape studies were discussed, such as landscape destruction, looting, site detection and mapping of architectural structures and water management.  

The practical application of remote sensing was then demonstrated in the examples of the study of the UnderTheSands project, which aims to locate and reconstruct the irrigation network using remote sensing and machine / deep learning methods in the Near East. The presentation showed an application of the methods developed in UnderTheSands on the example of Gorgan Plain (Iran), one of the critical areas of study on settlement patterns and qanat irrigation in the Near East (Hopper 2017).  

The presented methods allowed us to explore the potential of applying multitemporal satellite data processed in the Google Earth Engine (Sentinel 2, LANDSAT 5) and the application of recently declassified Hexagon imagery and TanDEM-X digital model in the landscape studies (© DLR 2022, DEM_HYDR3723). 


Funded by the European Union (Under The Sands; MSCA-IF-101062705). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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