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Documenting Archaeological Sites on Mountains and Slopes with Drones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2019

Luis Jaime Castillo Open the ORCID record for Luis Jaime Castillo [Opens in a new window] ,
Fabrizio Serván  and
Karla Patroni
Luis Jaime Castillo*
Affiliation:
San José de Moro Archaeological Program, Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima, Peru
Fabrizio Serván
Affiliation:
San José de Moro Archaeological Program, Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima, Peru
Karla Patroni
Affiliation:
San José de Moro Archaeological Program, Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima, Peru
*
(corresponding author, lcastil@pucp.edu.pe)
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Abstract

The addition of drones to the archaeologist's toolbox has brought about exciting new possibilities, particularly for field research and the conservation and protection of our built heritage. As drones become more widely available and effective, the challenge of precision becomes more important. Better georeferencing and higher-resolution outputs are the current thresholds. In order to achieve the second objective with our current equipment, drones have to fly closer to the ground and, ideally, follow the elevation of the surface. This task can be extremely complicated along the steep surfaces and mountains typical to the Andean region where we work. In this article, we present a recording (flying and photographing) methodology that achieves a higher ground resolution by dividing up the sites into several altitudinal sections, which are flown independently yet processed photogrammetrically as a single set. We have named this methodology “Flying Slopes in Multiple Stepped Polygons.”

La inclusión de drones en el equipamiento científico ha traído nuevas posibilidades para casi todos los campos de investigación. Esto ha sido particularmente cierto para los estudios arqueológicos de campo y para la conservación y protección del patrimonio construido. A medida que los drones se hacen más accesibles y efectivos, el reto de la precisión se hace más importante. Mejor georreferenciación y productos de mayor resolución son el reto actual. Para obtener el segundo objetivo con el equipo disponible, los drones tienen que volar más cerca de la superficie, e idealmente, deben seguir las elevaciones del terreno. Esta tarea puede ser extremadamente difícil en terrenos con pendientes y en montañas, típicas de la región andina donde trabajamos. En este artículo presentamos una metodología de registro (para volar y fotografiar) que consigue una mayor resolución del terreno dividiendo los sitios en varis secciones altitudinales, que se vuelan independientemente, pero que se procesan en programas de fotogrametría como un solo conjunto. Hemos nombrado a esta metodología “Vuelo en Pendiente en Múltiples Polígonos Escalonados”.

Keywords

dronesarchaeologyPerúCentral AndesdronesarqueologíaPerúAndes Centrales
Type
Articles
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , November 2019 , pp. 337 - 352
Copyright
Copyright 2019 © Society for American Archaeology 

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