Remote Sensing Analyses on Sentinel-2 Images: Looking for Roman Roads in Srem Region (Serbia)

Sara Zanni,Alessandro De Rosa

doi:10.3390/geosciences9010025

Sara Zanni, Alessandro De Rosa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9010025

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Journal: Geosciences	Publication Date: Jan 5, 2019
Citations: 20	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Université Bordeaux-Montaigne

Abstract

The present research is part of the project “From Aquileia to Singidunum: reconstructing the paths of the Roman travelers—RecRoad”, developed at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne, thanks to a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship. One of the goals of the project was to detect and reconstruct the Roman viability between the Roman cities of Aquileia (Aquileia, Italy) and Singidunum (Belgrade, Serbia), using different sources and methods, one of which is satellite remote sensing. The research project analyzed and combined several data, including images produced by the Sentinel-2 mission, funded by the European Commission Earth Observation Programme Copernicus, in which satellites were launched between 2015 and 2017. These images are freely available for scientific and commercial purposes, and constitute a constantly updated gallery of the whole planet, with a revisit time of five days at the Equator. The technical specifications of the satellites’ sensors are particularly suitable for archaeological mapping purposes, and their capacities in this field still need to be fully explored. The project provided a useful testbed for the use of Sentinel-2 images in the archaeological field. The study compares traditional Vegetation Indices with experimental trials on Sentinel images applied to the Srem District in Serbia. The paper also compares the results obtained from the analysis of the Sentinel-2 images with WorldView-2 multispectral images. The obtained results were verified through an archaeological surface survey.

Highlights

This paper aims to present the research methodology developed within the “RecRoad—Reconstructing the Paths of the Roman Travelers from Aquileia to Singidunum” project, funded through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne
Thanks to the specific distribution of modern settlements in the area of interest, the Srem district revealed to be favorable for the application of satellite remote sensing to detect Roman roads and buried archaeological remains
The District of Srem is well known from an archaeological point of view, due to the relevance held by the city of Sirmium during Roman times

Summary

Introduction

This paper aims to present the research methodology developed within the “RecRoad—Reconstructing the Paths of the Roman Travelers from Aquileia to Singidunum” project, funded through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne. The project, started in February 2016 and ended in January 2018, aimed to retrace, with the highest possible reliability level, the Roman itinerary between Aquileia (Italy) and Singidunum (Belgrade, Serbia), following the course of the Sava River. Singidunum, established at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers, where Belgrade is located, was an important city and one of the main military camps in the province of Moesia Superior. The Romans traced several itineraries to connect Northern Italy to the Danube area: the travelers could choose the one they preferred according to their personal needs. These routes are described in the itinerary sources, namely the Itinerarium Antonini [1] These routes are described in the itinerary sources, namely the Itinerarium Antonini [1] (pp. 1–85), [2,3], the Itinerarium Burdigalense [1] (pp. 86–190), [4,5] and the Tabula Peutingeriana [6,7,8,9,10,11]

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