How To Do Aerial Archaeology From Your Home

in this video we are going to quickly some of the basics of aerial archaeology and the sources you can use to do this from your computer or laptop looking at aerial photographs is one of the best strategies we use as archaeologists to locate and identify archaeology and occasionally a thorough study of these can even say this getting our feet money by heading out to dig or survey a site also the bird's eye view can reveal sites which completely invisible to the naked eye there are two types of aerial photograph plan view by dead shot it's October Castle and the Bleak view which is shot at an angle the latter of these is especially good for seeing earthworks the resources in this video we will mostly consult are in plan view but the features we are looking for can be applied to both types of photographs whilst there are many different tools we can use on a day to day basis I find the Google Earth Pro is a fab resort for browsing model and aerial photographs to get a free copy of Google Earth Pro we need to do is go to Google and search for download Google and select the top option and follow the instructions once you have opened Google Earth you can simply begin navigating by scrolling with the mouse or searching for an area you're interested in by the search bar in the top left hand corner but how do you locate buried features from the air and what clues can we look for one of the best indicators of buried remains or crop marks these are Co and buried features under the soil affect the growth of vegetation above it generally dit wrists create extra space for roots and the crops grow taller and the darker in color as you can see here at this field system in Queen Charlton where the prehistoric ditches are highlighted by the darker color in the crops other features like buried walls and paths will create weaker soils in the vegetation above will appear to be shorter and lighter or occasionally browner in color another indicator our soil marks and here is an example from Queen camel of a possible prehistoric enclosure however you can't quite see it right now and sometimes you'll need to examine several photographs to understand what you might be looking at especially as the ground cover can change over the years to do this Google's got a handy tool where if you move your mouse to the top panel and click on the symbol of a clock with an arrow on it you'll be able to browse historic aerial photographs we go back to 2001 you'll be able to see this saw a lot more clearly after the field has been plowed where you can see this rough outline of a ditch as I mentioned these generally occur after a field has been plowed where the soil disturbance reveals the top of bury features which contrasts with the natural soil easiest to spot tend to be ditches where the fill has been exposed sometimes however you can also spot blackish spots which can indicate areas of burning like possible halves you can also find areas of scattered stones which if in a linear arrangement might indicate the remains of a old stone wall finally perhaps the clearest indicator of buried archaeology are shadow marks these are created when summer is interrupted by the remains of physical earthworks casting shadows for example these ones surrounding this deserted medieval village at lights carried with house platforms field boundaries possible Holloway's and the remains of medieval plowing a visible once you get your iron you'll be able to see all sorts of features including prehistoric enclosures hill forts medieval strip lynches and rich in furrow to name a few generally repeated features and linear features that don't align to modern boundaries tend to be a good clue for archaeology however modern features like underground pipes and natural geology can create these marks as well so you may have to put on your detective hat and do a little bit of research if you need to do some of this research and sunset perhaps the best place to start looking is the online historic environment record which you can access on www.samael.org we K occasionally however you may look take something entirely new and if you do please get in touch with DHE our team here at the Southwest Heritage Trust also our website map to you we'll also give you some access to aerial photographs taken just after the Second World War these are especially useful for spotting World War two features or areas which have changed since their states or have been built over for example finally another aerial results which you can use is something called lidar which stands for light detection and ranging this uses lasers targeted to the ground from an aerial vehicle and measures the reflection this eventually produces its rest real model of the ground and is exceedingly good for spotting earthworks and here you can see Solsbury Hill camp or salzburg castle on the outside of paths where you can see the outside of the hill fort here as well as some earthworks in the center which are the remains of medieval strip fields you can browse lidar online at WWE or slash lab forward slash slider forward slash map or WWI defined comm however please note that these websites are not affiliated to the Southwest edges trust if you are familiar with GIS software you can also download this data free from the government Environment Agency website so that's about it so I just want to say thank you for watching and good luck with your aerial investigations you

Channel: South West Heritage Trust

Views: 6,624

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Id: A9kTd7XinCo

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020