Multitemporal Satellite Images for Knowledge of the Assyrian Capital Cities and for Monitoring Landscape Transformations in the Upper Course of Tigris River

The paper is concerned with the contribution that a rich documentation of multitemporal optical satellite images with high resolution provides for the knowledge of the five great Assyrian capital cities (Ashur, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, Kalhu, Dur-Sharrukin, and Nineveh, in northern Iraq). These images also allow monitoring changes of landscape in the higher course of the Tigris during the last half century and document damages in archaeological sites during the two Gulf Wars. The data set, available for each city, consists of panchromatic and multispectral images taken between 2001 and 2007 by modern commercial satellites (Ikonos-2, QuickBird-2, andWorldView-1) and of panchromatic photographs of U.S. spy satellites operating between 1965 and 1969 (Corona KH-4B and Gambit KH-7). These photos were taken before diffusion of mechanized agriculture and the expansion of urban areas, so they are very useful to document many archaeological features and the landscape that has been modified in the last decades, as shown by recent satellite images.