To Dig or Preserve

[John Wells]

Hmm great images but where are the results offal of this, can you point to a previously unknown site you've discovered?

As to new insights on existing sites I tend to sit with unit of 1 it's all good stuff but you need to dig!

Discovery is not in the list on:
http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/showthread.php?...on-PLOSone
ie
Location
Delineation
Assimilation
Manipulation
Interpretation
Presentation
and is more appropriate to satellite and work from planes.

An advantage of your own low-level aerial photography is that you can include ground reference markers.

For us, discovering new sites is a low priority, as they are being discovered by the 1000 using higher altitude techniques.

If by 'discovered' you simply mean not in the SMR, all you need is a pair of eyes.
The first site my late wife and I visited in 2007 was Ogilface Castle, which is no longer shown on maps, is not scheduled, but is in the SMR:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeologyogilfaceindex.htm



We parked in our local garden centre car park across the stream.
The garden centre was 'new' site No1, the local mill, which pre-dates the town:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/barbauchlawmill.htm
and which was not in the SMR.

After Ogilface Castle, we walked up the old monks road and found new site No2:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeology2.htm



also not in the SMR.

But kite and UAV aerial photography is more about high resolution imaging of known sites, to complement high altitude imaging.

Here is a well known local site: http://www.armadale.org.uk/gormyre.htm
Gormyre Hill, just up from Castlethorn prehistoric hillfort:


In the 1920s little was visible on the ground:
'There is now no trace of this enclosure, except perhaps two low parallel lines of mound, hardly worth recording.' Inventory of Monuments in West Lothian' RCAHMS, 1929.

Photographically, it is easy to reproduce the 1929 description:


You have to visit a site repeatedly through the seasons, which is ideal for local archaeology groups and enthusiasts.

Another example is here at Ardoch:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/ardoch.htm
where there are interesting, unrecorded features, which show up using KAP.

These examples are just the visible spectrum!
Near infra-red KAP is a whole different ball park:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/rufford.htm


http://www.armadale.org.uk/bathandbristolyac.htm


and thermal imaging holds considerable promise:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/phototech03.htm

Despite the kind comments, up until this summer, our aerial images have been moderate quality. We have upgraded our cameras and now have seven Sony Nex 5R cameras and four 8mm, full-frame, fish-eye lenses for use locally (http://www.armadale.org.uk/lochlands.htm / http://www.armadale.org.uk/sitew01.htm ) and down in Gloucestershire, with Group member Heidi Walker, for her KAP with the National Trust.

It is stating the obvious that remote sensing techniques, including aerial photography, are useful when planning excavations.

Publicity is still a key part of our work.

It is important to realise that almost all our West Lothian aerial work is now done by just Jim Knowles and myself.
Other members of the West Lothian Archaeology Group are working with KAP independently throughout the UK and publish their images elsewhere.

Before 2004, my wife and I had been tripping over archaeology in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire for over 30 years, with little interest.
However, in my early teens, I did have a metal detector (;oO) and also transmitted modulated AC signals through top soil, down the length of my parents back garden, using garden tools as electrodes. But Jim is our archaeological sciences lynch pin and is totally responsible for all the geophysical work now done by the Trust:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeogeophysics.htm