Abstract
Automated detection of landscape patterns on Remote Sensing imagery has seen virtually little or no development in the archaeological domain, notwithstanding the fact that large portion of cultural landscapes worldwide are characterized by land engineering applications. The current extraordinary availability of remotely sensed images makes it now urgent to envision and develop automatic methods that can simplify their inspection and the extraction of relevant information from them, as the quantity of information is no longer manageable by traditional “human” visual interpretation. This paper expands on the development of automatic methods for the detection of target landscape features—represented by field system patterns—in very high spatial resolution images, within the framework of an archaeological project focused on the landscape engineering embedded in Roman cadasters. The targets of interest consist of a variety of similarly oriented objects of diverse nature (such as roads, drainage channels, etc.) concurring to demark the current landscape organization, which reflects the one imposed by Romans over two millennia ago. The proposed workflow exploits the textural and shape properties of real-world elements forming the field patterns using multiscale analysis of dominant oriented response filters. Trials showed that this approach provides accurate localization of target linear objects and alignments signaled by a wide range of physical entities with very different characteristics.
Highlights
Present-day landscapes have been shaped by centuries of human action
This paper expands on the development of automatic methods for the detection of target landscape features—represented by field system patterns—in very high spatial resolution images, within the framework of an archaeological project focused on the landscape engineering embedded in Roman cadasters
In studying ancient regularly designed landscapes characterized by repetitive patterns, where highlighting the components of the system in order to determine repetitiveness is crucial to the goal of the research, the use of automated detection and extraction of cadaster element methods enables to reduce manual mapping time, and to improve the quality and number of correct identifications
Summary
Present-day landscapes have been shaped by centuries of human action. Since their settlement, ancient communities have planned, modified, and engineered the space around them: land surveying and field system deployments were some of the first forms of large-scale “landscape engineering”performed by complex societies in antiquity. Present-day landscapes have been shaped by centuries of human action. Since their settlement, ancient communities have planned, modified, and engineered the space around them: land surveying and field system deployments were some of the first forms of large-scale “landscape engineering”. Centuriation, the iconic Roman system of land subdivision into large square plots assigned to settlers, represents one of the most advanced efforts of landscape engineering of the ancient world. Its effects can be discerned even today, with this regular territorial design model continuing to have a significant influence on present-day agrarian organization in many locations across the Mediterranean basin and surrounding regions. Remote sensing represents one of the most effective methods for the study of landscape design and patterning and has been amply and successfully applied at any latitude to land systems prospecting.
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