Abstract
Buried archeological features show up as crop marks that are mostly visible using high-resolution image data. Such data are costly and restricted to small regions and time domains. However, a time series of freely available medium resolution imagery can be employed to detect crop growth changes to reveal subtle surface marks in large areas. This paper aims to study the classical Chinese settlements of Taosi and Erlitou over large areas using Landsat NDVI time series crop phenology to determine the optimum periods for detection and monitoring of crop anomalies. Burial areas (such as the palace area and the sacrificial area) were selected as the research area while the surrounding empty fields with a low density of ancient features were used as reference regions. Landsat NDVI covering two years’ growth periods of wheat and maize were computed and analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Euclidean distance. Similarities or disparities between the burial areas and their empty areas were computed using the Hausdorff distance. Based on the phenology of crop growth, the time series NDVI images of winter wheat and summer maize were generated to analyze crop anomalies in the archeological sites. Results show that the Hausdorff distance was high during the critical stages of water for both crops and that the images of high Hausdorff distance can provide more obvious subsurface archeological information.
Highlights
Remote sensing images offer an effective approach for archeological/historical site detection and monitoring by providing dynamic information about the landscape and environment
This study focuses on shallow burial archeological sites that are less than 200 cm below the surface and the phenology of the crops above the ground
The Hausdorff distance method, which is based on the concept of set, was used to measure the similarity of the archeological sites between mainly burial areas and empty areas
Summary
Remote sensing images offer an effective approach for archeological/historical site detection and monitoring by providing dynamic information about the landscape and environment. The long and strong presence of buried ruins has had a prolonged interference on the soil material and its properties over time [6]. Features such as the remnants of temples and palaces built by stones and rammed earth, lineal features comprising of walls, paleochannels and ancient roads, emerging or buried, affect crop growth and are displayed as crop anomalies that can be interpreted explicitly from detailed remote sensing images, depending on their bands and acquired time.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have