Abstract
This paper will assess the most recently available open access high-resolution optical satellite data (0.3 m–0.6 m) and its detection of buried ancient features versus ground based remote sensing tools. It also discusses the importance of CORONA satellite data to evaluate landscape changes over the past 50 years surrounding sites. The study concentrates on Egypt’s Nile Delta, which is threatened by rising sea and water tables and urbanization. Many ancient coastal sites will be lost in the next few decades, thus this paper emphasizes the need to map them before they disappear. It shows that high resolution satellites can sometimes provide the same general picture on ancient sites in the Egyptian Nile Delta as ground based remote sensing, with relatively sandier sedimentary and degrading tell environments, during periods of rainfall, and higher groundwater conditions. Research results also suggest potential solutions for rapid mapping of threatened Delta sites, and urge a collaborative global effort to maps them before they disappear.
Highlights
Landscapes across the Middle East have presented many opportunities for testing a broad range of remote sensing, from ground to space-based imagery, over the past 95 years
High resolution space photography from the late 1960s to early 1970s is the best data for archaeologists to examine prior to major urbanization and population growth with many discoveries at and around sites emerging from these datasets [1,2,3]
This paper shows how CORONA data helped an archaeological team to locate the enclosure wall of an ancient temple at the site of Tell Tebilla, where a magnetometer survey produced tomb and residential-level outlines, but it was not done at a sufficient scale and coverage to capture the presence or dimensions of the wall
Summary
Landscapes across the Middle East have presented many opportunities for testing a broad range of remote sensing, from ground to space-based imagery, over the past 95 years. With climate change, rising sea levels, urbanization, looting, and site destruction from civil war, for many sites, remotely sensed data is the main evidence we have for their existence. Many RAF photos are available for Egypt from the 1930s, which are invaluable today in relation to intensive landscape changes following the construction of the Aswan High Dam. CORONA high resolution space photography from the late 1960s to early 1970s is the best data for archaeologists to examine prior to major urbanization and population growth with many discoveries at and around sites emerging from these datasets [1,2,3]. While archaeologists have used satellite images since the early 1980s, this technology saw limited use in the Middle East until the late 1990s to early 2000s [4,5]
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