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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