Assessing the potential of Sentinel-2 imagery and spectroscopy for determining the origin of ancient artifacts in Khuzestan, Iran

Abstract

Studying the spectral behavior of objects using remote sensing and spectroscopy can be used to identify the source of the raw materials. Therefore, this research first studied the spectral behavior and composition of the ancient artifacts of the Ziggurat temple located in the Khuzestan province, southwest Iran, using FieldSpec3 spectro-radiometer, The Spectral Geologist (TSG), the Prism software, and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. A Comparison of the spectral curves and absorption features of the samples shows that the spectral behavior of brick and pottery samples differs mostly from that of soil samples. The next step was to examine the potential of Sentinel-2 images to classify the area using the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classifier for detecting the origin of the raw materials utilized in the construction of the Ziggurat's brick and pottery samples. The SAM results showed that the raw materials originated mostly from outside the area, which are confirmed by the results of TSG and Prism software. Comparison of the XRD results with the SAM and TSG validated that XRD results confirmed the SAM results. However, only some of the TSG similarity results were consistent with the XRD. These results suggest that the Sentinel-2 image was successful in finding the source of raw materials. The results can help decision makers to make informed decisions about the conservation and preservation of the temple and its artifacts. Also, they can use these techniques to investigate the origin of other ancient structures and artifacts in different locations.