Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case
This paper presents a selected aspect of research conducted within the Gaugamela Project, which seeks to finally identify the location of one of the most important ancient battles: the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE). The aim of this study was to discover material remains of the Macedonian military ca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/5/904 |
| _version_ | 1797417131471536128 |
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| author | Tomasz Pirowski Michał Marciak Marcin Sobiech |
| author_facet | Tomasz Pirowski Michał Marciak Marcin Sobiech |
| author_sort | Tomasz Pirowski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper presents a selected aspect of research conducted within the Gaugamela Project, which seeks to finally identify the location of one of the most important ancient battles: the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE). The aim of this study was to discover material remains of the Macedonian military camp on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq. For this purpose, three very high resolution satellite (VHRS) datasets from Pleiades and WorldView-2 were acquired and subjected to multi-variant image processing (development of different color composites, integration of multispectral and panchromatic images, use of principle component analysis transformation, use of vegetation indices). Documentation of photointerpretation was carried out through the vectorization of features/areas. Due to the character of the sought-after artifacts (remnants of a large enclosure), features were categorized into two types: linear features and areal features. As a result, 19 linear features and 2 areal features were found in the study area of the Mahad hills. However, only a few features fulfilled the expected geometric criteria (layout and size) and were subjected to field groundtruthing, which ended in negative results. It is concluded that no traces have been found that could be interpreted as remnants of an earthen enclosure capable of accommodating around 47,000 soldiers. Further research perspectives are also suggested. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:14:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23e59b73ae384424a138ee619dede714 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:14:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-23e59b73ae384424a138ee619dede7142023-12-03T11:54:34ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-02-0113590410.3390/rs13050904Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test CaseTomasz Pirowski0Michał Marciak1Marcin Sobiech2Department of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing of Environment and Spatial Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, PolandInstitute of Jewish Studies, Faculty of History, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Kraków, PolandEXGEO Professional Map, 87-100 Toruń, PolandThis paper presents a selected aspect of research conducted within the Gaugamela Project, which seeks to finally identify the location of one of the most important ancient battles: the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE). The aim of this study was to discover material remains of the Macedonian military camp on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq. For this purpose, three very high resolution satellite (VHRS) datasets from Pleiades and WorldView-2 were acquired and subjected to multi-variant image processing (development of different color composites, integration of multispectral and panchromatic images, use of principle component analysis transformation, use of vegetation indices). Documentation of photointerpretation was carried out through the vectorization of features/areas. Due to the character of the sought-after artifacts (remnants of a large enclosure), features were categorized into two types: linear features and areal features. As a result, 19 linear features and 2 areal features were found in the study area of the Mahad hills. However, only a few features fulfilled the expected geometric criteria (layout and size) and were subjected to field groundtruthing, which ended in negative results. It is concluded that no traces have been found that could be interpreted as remnants of an earthen enclosure capable of accommodating around 47,000 soldiers. Further research perspectives are also suggested.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/5/904VHRS datasetsPleiadesWorldView-2image interpretationimage data fusiondecorrelation stretch |
| spellingShingle | Tomasz Pirowski Michał Marciak Marcin Sobiech Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case Remote Sensing VHRS datasets Pleiades WorldView-2 image interpretation image data fusion decorrelation stretch |
| title | Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case |
| title_full | Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case |
| title_fullStr | Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case |
| title_short | Potentialities and Limitations of Research on VHRS Data: Alexander the Great’s Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a Test Case |
| title_sort | potentialities and limitations of research on vhrs data alexander the great s military camp at gaugamela on the navkur plain in kurdish iraq as a test case |
| topic | VHRS datasets Pleiades WorldView-2 image interpretation image data fusion decorrelation stretch |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/5/904 |
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