Synonyms
Nondestructive archaeology
Definition
Remote Sensing – or Télédétection (French), Fernerkundung (German), Percepcion Remota (Spanish), 遙感 (Chinese) – can be defined as the science of identifying, observing, interpreting, and measuring objects or surfaces without coming into direct contact with them.
In the archaeological process, the scientific community has taken at least two different approaches to the definition of remote sensing. Some archaeologists define it as the technique of obtaining information about objects through the analysis of data collected by sensors (cameras, scanners, imaging radar systems, etc.) that are not in physical contact with the objects under investigation, mostly using spaceborne and airborne instruments. From this point of view, remote sensing differs from ground-based sensing, in which the instruments physically touch the ground surface. A common example of a ground-based instrument is ground-penetrating radar (Doneus et al., 2011).
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WEB References
Aerial Archaeology Research Group. http://www.univie.ac.at/aarg.
International Society for Archaeological Prospection. http://www.brad.ac.uk/archsci/archprospection/.
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Campana, S. (2017). Remote Sensing in Archaeology. In: Gilbert, A.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4409-0_122
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