Remote Sensing in Archaeology: From Visual Data Interpretation to Digital Data Manipulation

Satellite remote sensing technologies have triggered improvements in archaeological research and developments of new tools in archaeological prospection from discovery to monitoring, from documentation to preservation of cultural resources. Nevertheless, this increasing interest in remote sensing has not been accompanied by new perspectives in data processing, analysis and interpreta- tion. Specific methodologies must be developed ad hoc for archaeology in order to optimize the extraction and understanding of the information content from the numerous active and passive satellite data sets. This chapter provides a brief overview on qualitative and quantitative data analysis from visual interpretation to digital manipulation.