From the 17th to the 19th century, a score of military events, campaigns and battles took place in the Czech lands, leaving numerous traces and distinctly changing the appearance of the cultural ...landscape in some regions. The results of long-term aerial-archeological surveys in the Czech lands have demonstrated that this detection method is advantageous in identifying buried sites built in the past in the context of military conflicts. Experience hitherto has made it possible to label archeological remote sensing as a collection of the potentially most effective methods for uncovering sites of field fortifications dated to the modern period and the beginning of the industrial era. This includes finds of both solitary sites and segments of strategically built fortification lines. This paper is an attempt to critically evaluate these hitherto recorded landmarks which have been discovered and documented via aerial prospection from the 1990s to the present. At the same time, this study reflects on the possibilities offered by the modern methods of remote sensing which have played a significant role in the discovery, mapping, documentation, digital terrain modelling, and the 3D virtual reconstructions of these sites.
Late Neolithic long barrows are commonly found throughout Central and Northwestern Europe, within the Funnel Beaker Culture territory. The sites of this Culture are known from Bohemia covering a ...period between 3900 and 3400 BC. However, long barrows have not been detected in Bohemia for a long time. The main reason is that they are located in areas where they were affected by modern ploughing. A significant contribution to their recognition was the remote sensing of modern fields, especially aerial archaeology. Current research in Bohemia provided new evidence of dozens of long barrows of several types, significantly expanding our knowledge of this phenomenon in the southeastern margins of its distribution. A new type of long barrow has been identified in Bohemia using remote sensing and current excavation data. The characteristic parameters of the long barrows in Bohemia are an east-west orientation with the ceremonial place in the eastern front and the delineation of the perimeter by a palisade trough or a ditch. The mounds can be divided into at least two structural and chronological forms. The first is the narrow and sometimes extremely long mound with perimeter defined by a palisade trough dating to the 3900–3800 BC. The second type of barrow is enclosed by a trapezoidal ditch. Based on radiocarbon dating, these structures were constructed during the 3700–3600 BC. This type of monument is currently known exclusively from Bohemia.
This paper aims to present the potential of observations of the Earth’s surface by means of remote sensing (survey), specifically via direct (active) visual prospection from low altitude to identify ...and map small components (such as postholes) of archaeological contexts, namely aboveground post-built structures dated to the Early Iron Age (appr. 800–380 B.C.). This work gives an example of archaeological data on buried settlement constructions identified by aerial reconnaissance (i.e., by a non-invasive method), the interpretation—and primarily dating—of which is based on information achieved by excavation practice (recently performed predominantly during rescue campaigns). This research points to the fact that nonetheless to the traditional idea on the limited potential of crop-marked archaeological heritage in terms of dating (the ability of cropmarks displayed over pits, ditches, graves, etc., to produce exact ground-plans of even small buried features, so that their original function and dating can be determined) the number of more or less precisely datable archaeological sites and features buried under the surface is growing, including wooden structures once constructed on the ground (i.e., not sunken under the ground) and leaving on cereal crops just tiny spots/dots regularly spaced into lines. These are features (constructions) with identical ground plans (postholes placed in 4 × 3 and/or 3 × 3 patterns) of which commonly just one in a group of them situated on one site is enclosed by a perimeter line—a foundation for a wall or a trench for a palisade. Consequently, a retrospective survey of air-photo analog archives and digital repositories now brings new evidence on the chronological setting of many crop-marked Early Iron Age sites that previously remained undated.
In this paper we want to present how data acquired in the 25 years long period during aerial archaeological survey – carried out by the Prague Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences – of ...buried sites seasonally displayed through cropmarks have recently been processed in order to become a type of document of the same value as the documents produced by means of archaeological excavation, i.e. large scale maps and plans of the detected and photographed crop-marked sites. A principal attention is given to the application of modern methods of 3D modelling. Representative examples are gradually selected from several hundred archaeological sites hidden beneath the earth’s surface and seasonally visible through ‘vegetation/crop marks’ in order to document the potential of such marks to get an idea of the layout of detected sites (individual features as well as complex settlement areas). A ‘flight’ over a virtual prehistoric or historical landscape in the form of animated video clips can then present in an attractive way, especially to the general public, the characteristic features of the past landscape.
V této práci přinášíme informace o tom, jakým způsobem jsou v současnosti zpracovávána data získaná během 25 let trvajícího letecko-archeologického průzkumu, dlouhodobého výzkumného programu, uskutečňovaného v pražském Archeologickém ústavu AV ČR. Heuristická fáze programu byla založena na identifikaci a fotoletecké dokumentaci pod povrchem terénu ukrytých objektů/lokalit, které jsou za příhodných podmínek zviditelňované prostřednictvím vegetačních příznaků. V posledních letech probíhá zpracování získaných dat do podoby stejného druhu dokumentů, které jsou pořizovány během terénních výzkumů odkryvem – tedy map velkého měřítka a plánů lokalit objevených výše uvedeným způsobem. Velký význam má v tomto procesu aplikace moderních postupů tvorby 3D modelů. Z několika set archeologických lokalit jsou postupně vybírány příklady, na nichž lze dokumentovat potenciál vegetačních příznaků pro získání představy o půdorysu detekovaných lokalit. „Průletem“ nad virtuální krajinou formou animovaných klipů lze zejména široké veřejnosti přiblížit charakteristické rysy pravěké či středověké krajiny.
Buried (syn. sunken, sub-surface and sub-soil) archaeological features on arable land can frequently be discovered due to visually detectable changes in crop growth termed cropmarks. The aim of this ...paper was to demonstrate the range of features identified through cropmarks on aerial photographs in stands of main field crops in the Czech Republic.
Low-altitude oblique aerial photographs of cropmarks were collected from an aircraft from a height of 300–500 m above ground during approximately 800 flight hours from 1992 to 2010. Some features discovered via cropmarks were excavated by standard archaeological methods.
Around one thousand cropmarked sites were discovered. The highest density of archaeological sites was on sandy soils in dry lowland regions, and a substantially lower number on loess or clay soils or in regions above 350 m a.s.l. Cropmarks were best developed in barley (Hordeum vulgare), followed by wheat (Triticum aestivum), winter rape (Brassica napus) and lucerne (Medicago sativa). The most common archaeological sites discovered via positive cropmarks were ancient funeral and settlement areas, with many related features such as waste pits, sunken dwellings, post holes, ditches and graves. Abandoned roads were the most commonly negatively cropmarked features. Positive cropmarks represented 98% and negative only 2% of all recorded cropmarks.
Archaeological features present beneath the modern arable horizon can irreversibly change sub-soil properties and growth of crops. Arable fields in Czech lowlands represent a unique archive of buried archaeological features, recording human activities in the landscape over the last 7500 years.
► Sub-soil archaeological features change growth of crops. ► Arable fields in Central Europe represent unique archaeological archive. ► The best crop for the archaeological remote sensing is barley.
Background and aims How prehistoric human settlement activities have changed soil chemical properties, plant nutrition and growth of contemporary crops is a question that has not been satisfactorily ...addressed. The aim of this paper was to study to what extent nutrient availability in the soil, together with nutrition and growth of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare), improved on sites of former sunken buildings (cropmarks) in comparison to their surroundings (controls) 1,700 years after abandonment of the buildings. Methods in the Czech Republic, a unique prehistoric settlement with many sunken buildings was discovered during aerial reconnaissance from cropmarks in stands of cereals. Soil and biomass samples were collected from cropmarks and controls in a barley crop in June 2012. Results A substantially higher content of organic matter, higher pH and concentrations of plant-available (Mehlich III) P, Ca, Mg, Cu and Zn were recorded in the sub-soil layer in cropmarks compared with controls, indicating the accumulation of wood ash and organic waste. In the arable layer, pH and concentrations of P, Ca and Mg were generally very high in both positions. Cropmarks were characterised by barley plants that were twice as tall as the controls, with significantly higher Ca, Mg and P concentrations. Conclusions Prehistoric settlement activity affected nutrient availability and plant growth in the previously settled area even after 1,700 years. We conclude that the chemical signature of prehistoric settlement activity can be detected from chemical analysis of the subsoil layer as well as analysis of the contemporary arable layer and crop biomass.
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