Archaeological prospection from the air in the district around the open mining of the Cologne Basin in Northrheinwestfalia/Germany-a project also to evaluate the ability of vertical and oblique aerial photographs in aerial archaeology

Abstract

To work successful in archaeology in the open mining district of the Cologne Basin, it is necessary to get knowledge as fare as possible of what you will see under the surface, when digging into the ground. This knowledge comes by archaeological prospection, with the special science disciplines geophysical measurements, geochemical proofs, geoarchaelogical drillings, surface scans and last but not least the aerial archaeology. This remote sensing method is since 1960 systematically in work, in the 14400 km2 wide Rhineland-part of Germany. To focus this method specially on the purpose in the three open-mine areas of the Cologne Basin, there was set up a special project running over one year, financed by the foundation Stiftung Archaologie im Rheinischen Braunkohlenrevier. A main focus in this project was to test the abilities of vertical and oblique photos in connection with color-infrared film material. The paper describes the project-aims, work and results, illustrated with a few aerial photographs, plots and digital orthophotos of findings and brings out, what change in aerial archaeology in the whole Rhineland area is initiated by this project.