Archaeology from the Air: Lecture 1, Nottingham Autumn 2014
1. Archaeology from the Air
Class 1: Aerial archaeology pioneers from
Wessex to the Middle East
Tutor: Keith Challis
archaeology-from-the-air.blogspot.co.uk
2. Class Summary
• Admin and Housekeeping
• Personal Introduction
• Course Outline
• What is aerial archaeology?
• Coffee Break
• Feedback – themes and choices
• From Wessex to the Middle East, early pioneers
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6. About Me
• National Trust
• Research Associate, Department
of Archaeology, University of York
• Research Fellow in Remote
Sensing, University of Birmingham
• Research Officer, York
Archaeological Trust
• Research Associate, University of
Nottingham
• 13 years project management and
commercial archaeological
consultancy at Trent & Peak
Archaeology
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7. My Interests
• Remote Sensing
– Lidar
– Airborne MS/HS imagery
– Satellite applications in
cultural heritage
• Heritage
– Alluvial geoarchaeology
– Medieval landscapes
• GI Science
– Predictive modelling
– Landscape analyis
– Visualisation of landscape
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9. Course Outline
1. Aerial archaeology pioneers from Wessex to the Middle
East
2. Aerial archaeology grows up: from WW2 to the National
Mapping Programme
3. Using aerial photographs 1: types of photograph and
evidence
4. Using aerial photographs 2: from photograph to map
5. Space based satellite systems and archaeology
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10. Course Outline
6. Seeing beyond the visible. What is hyperspectral remote
sensing?
7. Mapping the shape of the land. Lidar, radar and archaeology
8. Looking at a landscape in detail using aerial imagery
9. The future of aerial archaeology
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11. Learning Outcomes
• Appreciate the historical development of aerial
archaeology in Britain and more widely.
• Understand the principle types of archaeological
evidence seen on aerial photographs and how this
evidence is used by archaeologists.
• Be able to look at, critically assess and sketch plot
archaeological evidence on aerial imagery.
• Be familiar with some non-photographic techniques for
examining landscape from the air.
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13. Reading and Books
Barber, M. (2011). A History of Aerial Photography and
Archaeology: Mata Hari's Glass Eye and Other Stories.
English Heritage. [KEY TEXT]
Crawford, O. G. S., & Keiller, A. (1928). Wessex from the
Air. Clarendon Press.
Greene, K., & Moore, T. (2010). Archaeology: an
introduction. Routledge.
Hauser, K. (2008). Bloody Old Britain: OGS Crawford and
the archaeology of modern life. Granta UK.
Riley, D. N. (1987). Air photography and archaeology.
Duckworth.
Riley, D. N., Samuels, J., & May, J. (1980). Early Landscape
from the Air: studies of crop marks in South Yorkshire and
North Nottinghamshire. Department of Prehistory and
Archaeology, University of Sheffield.
Whimster, R. (1989). The emerging past. RCHME (English
Heritage), London.
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14. Reading and Books
Course bookshop (Amazon)
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/hoskins-21
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15. Course Web Site
• Lecture Slides
• Downloadable handouts
• Bookshop
• Resources
• Supplementary Material
• Answers
http://archaeology-from-the-air.blogspot.co.uk
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16. Options
• Existing group knowledge and skills…?
• Interests and preferences
• Themes and skills…?
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18. What is Aerial Archaeology?
Techniques: Conventional Photographic
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Alexander Keiller, Wessex From the
Air (1928)
19. What is Aerial Archaeology?
Techniques: Active Survey (Lidar/radar)
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20. What is Aerial Archaeology?
Techniques: MS and Space Based
Imaging
Worldview 2
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21. What is Aerial Archaeology?
Techniques: The future, UAVs and more
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22. What is Aerial Archaeology?
What can you see from the air?
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23. What is Aerial Archaeology?
What can you see from the air?
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24. What is Aerial Archaeology?
What can you see from the air?
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Roman Fort, Newton Kyme, Yorks
Cropmarks
25. What is Aerial Archaeology?
What can you see from the air?
Soilmarks Shadow Sites
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26. What is Aerial Archaeology?
Making Sense of Landscape
Caistor Roman Fort,
Norfolk
An English Heritage,
National Mapping
Programme cropmark plot,
the result of analysis of
numerous photographs
taken over many years.
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27. What is Aerial Archaeology?
A distinct discipline?
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31. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
The Aerial View
•William Stukeley
•Avebury (1743)
•Primacy of aerial viewpoint
in landscape ascetics
•Romantics vision from
above
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32. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Origins
•Civilian and military
ballooning from
1860s onward
•Cpt Henry Elsdale
Series of air
photographs of
military sites in 1880s
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33. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Origins
•Lt Henry Sharpe first
aerial photograph of an
archaeological site
•Royal Engineers, 1906
Stonehenge
photographs
•Published in
Archaeologia in 1907,
but little impact
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34. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Aerial Photography in the Great War
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• Although many individual balloon,
kite and aircraft enthusiasts took
photographs in the early 20th
century, air-photography came into
its own in the Great War
• Many early archaeologists were first
exposed to air photography and its
potential as part of their war service
• The technology of flight,
photography and interpretation
developed immensely as war
progressed
35. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Aerial Photography in the Great War
archaeology-from-the-air.blogspot.co.uk
• Early photography by RFC officers
ad hoc and unofficial
• Official recognition followed and
photography became a part of the
process of identifying enemy
deployments and positions
• Mapping both British and German
trench networks and of production
of up to date maps was a key
function of aerial photography
(Many French maps were
Napoleonic in origin!)
36. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Aerial Photography in the Great War
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• The role of the
observer/gunner/photographer
developed
• Key to the advancement of the
use of photographs was the
development of techniques of
interpretation and the role of the
experienced air photograph
interpreter
• Individual service personnel
began to notice archaeological
features during military flights
and on military photographs
37. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
OGS Crawford and the British Revolution
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• OGS Crawford (1886-1957)
• The eccentric pioneer of aerial
archaeology and the practice of
archaeology in the field (as opposed
to excavation)
• A varied pre-war career as a
geographer and archaeologist, partly
in the Middle East
• War service in the RFC as an
observer/mapper
38. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
OGS Crawford and the British Revolution
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• Post WW1 became first Ordnance
Survey archaeologist
• Instrumental in updating mapping of
antiquities on OS maps
• Made full use of OS resources and a
network of amateur
pilot/photographers to investigate
archaeology from the air
• Founded journal Antiquity in 1927,
published many results of early air
photography
39. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
OGS Crawford and the British Revolution
Alexander Keiller
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• Working with philanthropist
Alexander Keiller researched
and published Wessex from the
Air in 1928
• Involved in Keiller’s work at
Avebury
• Instrumental in discovery of
Woodhenge from the air
• Codified the practice of air
photographs in archaeology for
first time
40. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
OGS Crawford and the British Revolution
archaeology-from-the-air.blogspot.co.uk
• An eccentric figure (Uncle Oggs) but
hugely influential on a generation of
young interwar archaeologists that
shaped the development of British
archaeology
• A utopian communist, acolyte of HG
Wells and friend of V. Gordon Childe
• From a generation that believed the
past was fully knowable and
archaeological knowledge finite.
• Air photographs was his lens on the
past
41. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Antoine Poidebard, surveying the Levant
http://www.usj.edu.lb/poidebard/muse.htm
• 1878 – 1955
• Jesuit missionary priest working in
Armenia in 1904
• Worked for the French military mission to
the Caucuses from 1917
• French representative to the Armenian
government
• Helped rescue Armenians from Turkish
genocide in 1924
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42. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Antoine Poidebard, surveying the Levant
• Identified faint traces of ancient structures
from the air during flights across desert
• Working in Lebanon with the French air
force from 1925
• He developed new techniques of air
photography relying on low oblique light to
reveal faint features
• Poidebard’s techniques relied on precise
flying, innovative photographic emulsions,
filters and techniques to accentuate slight
details on the ground
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43. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Antoine Poidebard, surveying the Levant
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• Working on Syria in the 1920s
• Between 1925 and 1932 fixed the
route of the imperial
limes of Bosra in the central desert
of Syria around Palmyra
• From 1932 to 1942 his work
focused on Roman remains in the
Euphrates and the Orontes valleys
44. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Antoine Poidebard, surveying the Levant
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• In the 1930s his attention turned
to North Africa
• He flew extensively in what is
now Libya photographing
Phoenician ports
• Working with French navy divers
he identified submerged remains
of former Phoenician towns and
cities
45. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Antoine Poidebard, surveying the Levant
archaeology-from-the-air.blogspot.co.uk
• Legacy an extraordinary
collection of photographs
documenting a now largely
lost landscape
• Technical mastery and
innovation
46. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
Aerial Archaeology by 1939
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• By the outbreak of WW2 in
1939 aerial photography a
mature, technically advanced
discipline
• The strategic and tactical
importance of air photography
to the military recognised
• The use of aerial survey and
the types of archaeological
phenomena visible on
photographs reasonable well
understood
47. Pioneers of Aerial Archaeology
• It even found its way into popular
fiction
• Neville Shute – So Distained
(1928),
• An Old Captivity (1940)
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48. Further Study
• Suggested Reading
Barber, M. (2011). A History of Aerial Photography and
Archaeology: Mata Hari's Glass Eye and Other Stories.
English Heritage.
Hauser, K. (2009). Bloody Old Britain: OGS Crawford and
the Archaeology of Modern Life By. Granta Books.
Shute, N. (1940 – republished 2009). An Old Captivity.
Vintage Books. London.
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