Application of Remote Sensing in Cultural Heritage Management.Project report 2013

This project was started in 2002 with the overall aim of developing a cost-effective method for surveying and monitoring cultural heritage sites on a regional and national scale. The project focuses on the development of automated pattern recognition methods for detecting and locating cultural heritage sites. The pattern recognition methods are included in a prototype software called CultSearcher. This software currently supports the following: (1) Search for crop marks and soil marks in optical satellite and aerial imagery; these marks could be levelled grave mounds. (2) Search for pits in airborne laser scanning (ALS) data; these pits could be pitfall traps or charcoal burning pits. (3) Search for heaps in ALS data; these heaps could be Iron Age or Bronze Age grave mounds. This note describes the achievements of the project during 2013. The project is funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. In 2013, the semi-automatic method in CultSearcher for the detection of grave mounds was used in detailed mapping of grave mounds in Tønsberg municipality, Vestfold County. Oppland County Administration has continued to use the semi-automatic method in CultSearcher for detailed mapping of archaeological pits, and reports on such mapping in Nord-Fron and Sør-Fron municipalities.