Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy)
In this paper, the authors present a recent integrated survey carried out on an archaeological urban site, generally free of buildings, except some temporary structures related to excavated areas where multi-chamber tombs were found. The two methods used to investigate this site were thermal infrare...
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MDPI AG
2014-11-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/11/10986 |
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| author | Carlo Piga Luca Piroddi Elisa Pompianu Gaetano Ranieri Stefano Stocco Antonio Trogu |
| author_facet | Carlo Piga Luca Piroddi Elisa Pompianu Gaetano Ranieri Stefano Stocco Antonio Trogu |
| author_sort | Carlo Piga |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper, the authors present a recent integrated survey carried out on an archaeological urban site, generally free of buildings, except some temporary structures related to excavated areas where multi-chamber tombs were found. The two methods used to investigate this site were thermal infrared and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The thermography was carried out with the sensor mounted under a helium balloon simultaneously with a photographic camera. In order to have a synthetic view of the surface thermal behavior, a simplified version of the existing night thermal gradient algorithm was applied. By this approach, we have a wide extension of thermal maps due to the balloon oscillation, because we are able to compute the maps despite collecting few acquisition samples. By the integration of GPR and the thermal imaging, we can evaluate the depth of the thermal influence of possible archaeological targets, such as buried Punic tombs or walls belonging to the succeeding medieval buildings, which have been subsequently destroyed. The thermal anomalies present correspondences to the radar time slices obtained from 30 to 50 cm. Furthermore, by superimposing historical aerial pictures on the GPR and thermal imaging data, we can identify these anomalies as the foundations of the destroyed buildings. |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:59:18Z |
| publishDate | 2014-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c507d00de464db7969d4554258dc1242022-12-21T23:49:19ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922014-11-01611109861101210.3390/rs61110986rs61110986Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy)Carlo Piga0Luca Piroddi1Elisa Pompianu2Gaetano Ranieri3Stefano Stocco4Antonio Trogu5Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, ItalyDepartment of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, ItalyDepartment of History, Human and Training Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Umberto 52, 07100 Sassari, ItalyDepartment of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, ItalyGamut S.r.l., 10128 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, ItalyIn this paper, the authors present a recent integrated survey carried out on an archaeological urban site, generally free of buildings, except some temporary structures related to excavated areas where multi-chamber tombs were found. The two methods used to investigate this site were thermal infrared and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The thermography was carried out with the sensor mounted under a helium balloon simultaneously with a photographic camera. In order to have a synthetic view of the surface thermal behavior, a simplified version of the existing night thermal gradient algorithm was applied. By this approach, we have a wide extension of thermal maps due to the balloon oscillation, because we are able to compute the maps despite collecting few acquisition samples. By the integration of GPR and the thermal imaging, we can evaluate the depth of the thermal influence of possible archaeological targets, such as buried Punic tombs or walls belonging to the succeeding medieval buildings, which have been subsequently destroyed. The thermal anomalies present correspondences to the radar time slices obtained from 30 to 50 cm. Furthermore, by superimposing historical aerial pictures on the GPR and thermal imaging data, we can identify these anomalies as the foundations of the destroyed buildings.http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/11/10986aerial remote sensingthermographynight thermal gradienttime series analysesthermal inertiaGPRground penetrating radararchaeologynear-surface geophysicspicture filtering |
| spellingShingle | Carlo Piga Luca Piroddi Elisa Pompianu Gaetano Ranieri Stefano Stocco Antonio Trogu Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) Remote Sensing aerial remote sensing thermography night thermal gradient time series analyses thermal inertia GPR ground penetrating radar archaeology near-surface geophysics picture filtering |
| title | Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) |
| title_full | Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) |
| title_fullStr | Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) |
| title_short | Integrated Geophysical and Aerial Sensing Methods for Archaeology: A Case History in the Punic Site of Villamar (Sardinia, Italy) |
| title_sort | integrated geophysical and aerial sensing methods for archaeology a case history in the punic site of villamar sardinia italy |
| topic | aerial remote sensing thermography night thermal gradient time series analyses thermal inertia GPR ground penetrating radar archaeology near-surface geophysics picture filtering |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/11/10986 |
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