Sentinel-2 imagery analyses for archaeological site detection: an application to Late Bronze Age settlements in Serbian Banat, southern Carpathian Basin

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing has become a valuable tool in archaeology, allowing the monitoring of existing and discovery of new sites, and to study their surroundings. In an attempt to identify unknown Late Bronze Age (LBA) archaeological sites in the Serbian Banat region (southern Carpathian Basin), remote sensing techniques for site detection were applied using Sentinel-2 data. A multi-temporal analysis was performed, and the spectral signatures of soil marks from five known LBA settlements were analysed to determine the best conditions for the identification of archaeological features. Several principal component analyses (PCA), band combinations and vegetation indices were calculated. The vegetation indices results from soil marks at known sites demonstrated the impact of settlement characteristics (compositions, subsurface anomalies) on vegetation growth. Applying this further to identify new sites from the satellite data, one hundred and two possible archaeological locations, ranging from only a few hectares to 100 ha, were identified in Banat and Bačka, to the east and west of the Tisza River. Of the sixty-one possible sites identified in Banat, a sample was visited and their chronology confirmed, proving once again the enormous capabilities of Sentinel-2 data analyses for site detection.