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A NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY 
Tan Kelong 1 , Wan Yuqing 1 , Yang Lin 2 , Zhou Riping 1 , Cao Wei 3 , Mao Yaobao 1 
1.Aerophotogrammetry & Remote Sensing of China Coal, Xi’an, 710054, Tan-kl@163.com; 
2. National Historical Museum of China, Beijing 100006; 
3. Archeological Institute of Shaanxi Province, Xi’an, 710054 
Commission VII, WG VII/3 
KEY WORDS: Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, Archaeology, Relic Exploration, Spectral Anomaly, Thermal Infrared Anomaly, 
OMISII 
ABSTRACT: 
Contrast to traditional archaeological technologies, remote sensing technology can help do exploration and make maps for large-scale 
underground relics rapidly and cheaply. But according to numerous former remote sensing archaeological practices, remote sensing 
technology was well effective only when a certain amount of ground remnants existed in the target archaeological sites, while where 
there were not ground remnants, remote sensing analysis would obtain no useful results. What archaeologists expect most is an 
effective archaeological remote sensing technology for archaeological sites without any ground remnants existing. Taking Shenhe 
loess tableland and the Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang (MEQ) (259-210 BC) as case studies, this paper introduces a new 
archaeological remote sensing technology— hyperspectral remote sensing for archaeology. It achieves underground relics exploration 
successfully in no ground remnants conditions by detecting and identifying weak spectral anomalies. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Brief Introduction of Remote Sensing Archaeology 
Remote sensing archaeology is to explore cultural relics from 
space borne images and ground survey (Kvamme 2005). 
Overlying soil on the relics is distinct from surrounding soils in 
color, texture, humidity, and compactness, especially, when the 
farming soil layer has been ploughed (Chen 2004, Tan et al. 
2005) . Soil differences in looseness, fertility, water content 
caused by underground relics usually lead to anomalies in 
growth and distribution of vegetation (Scollar et al. 1990) or 
differences in height, density and color of crops and weeds. In 
addition, relics usually appear with special micro-relieves and in 
special geometrical shapes, especially large-scale ground and 
underground projects such as excavations and fillings of 
mausoleum pits and accompanying buried pits, soil taking from 
ground and soil heaps on mausoleum, dug ditches that lead to 
changes of ground shapes and form certain patterns (Tan et al. 
2006) . These differences will affect the absorption and 
reflection of solar radiance and thermal radiation from objects 
(Dabas and Tabbagh 2000). Weak changes of thermal emission 
and spectral characteristics of objects will be the indications for 
remote sensing archaeology. Remote sensing technology can 
perceive the spectral characteristics of objects on ground and 
from a short distance beneath the surface ( 1 -2m) (Kvamme 
2005). 
Usually in the relics distributed areas, there are no obvious 
differences in soil, vegetation and physiognomy because of 
human activities and cultivations that have been lasting for 
hundreds or even thousands of years, therefore it is difficult to 
interpret distinct anomalies in ordinary images. Previous remote 
sensing archaeologies were only effective for the sites where 
ground remnants existed. If there were no ground remnants, 
remote sensing didn’t have great advantages actually (Liu 2006). 
What archaeologists expect most is a new effective 
archaeological remote sensing technology for archaeological 
sites without any ground traces existing. So the latter is of more 
practical significance in remote sensing archaeology. 
From 2003 to 2006, funded by a key project of National High 
Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 
Program) and National Historical Museum of China, the authors 
carried out application research on hyperspectral remote sensing 
archaeology about the Mausoleum of the Emperor Qinshihuang 
(MEQ) (259-210 BC) and Shenhe loess tableland in Chang’an 
county (20km south of Xi’an city), Shaanxi province. Important 
discoveries were acquired. 
1.1.1 1.2 Introduction of Research Areas 
Figure 1. Relative locations of research 
Located at the middle of Weihe River plain and the north foot of 
Li Mountain, the Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang is 30 km 
away from Xi’an to the east (see Figure 1). According to 
historical records, when MEQ had been built up, there were 
towering pyramid-shaped mound, continuous tamped soil city 
wall, majesty palaces and temples. There were also underground 
palace built through three water-bearing beds, many 
accompanying buried pits with luxury properties, and plenty of 
buried articles and jewellery. But the ground buildings had been 
burned down and destroyed due to the dynasty change at the 
end of Qin dynasty, leaving only the solitary pyramid-shaped 
mound. 
Along the banks of Feng River near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, 
the early ancient capitals Feng and Hao of Westzhou Dynasty