Application of satellite data in management of cultural heritage. Project Report 2009

This report describes a prototype software system, CultSearcher, which is capable of detecting some previously unknown cultural heritage sites in high‐resolution satellite images of
agricultural land in Norway. The software detects circular patterns in the images. These patterns may be indications of destroyed and over‐ploughed grave mounds. The new detections are to be verified by field inspections this summer. The focus of the report is two‐fold. Firstly, it describes improvements of the software made during 2009. This includes an improved detection algorithm, an improved user interface, and improved processing capability. Secondly, it describes soil marks and crop marks that are detected by the improved software. Many of the detections are previously unknown. Some of these are both obvious and close to known grave sites, so that they be included in the Norwegian national cultural heritage database Askeladden without further investigation. Other detections need to be confirmed by field work. In conclusion, 2009 was a break through year in the project, by demonstrating that previously unknown cultural heritage sites can be detected by satellite remote sensing algorithms in a cost‐effective manner.