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Interpreting Archaeological Features on the Wieprza River Floodplain, West Pomerania, Poland

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Remote Sensing for Archaeology and Cultural Landscapes

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Abstract

Application of remote sensing techniques in archaeology makes both the detection of new features and the rethinking of previous results possible. Additionally, integration of heterogeneous datasets provides better means of understanding past landscapes. However, similarities between anthropogenic structures and natural landforms hamper interpretation. In this paper, we present some interpretative difficulties related to the integration of data acquired by means of different prospection methods. We use a case study of the middle Wieprza River basin to discuss the role of archaeological pre-understanding and the challenging location of sites within a fluvial landscape. We demonstrate that distinction between natural and anthropogenic features is conditioned by the characteristics of the studied area and the capabilities of the applied methods to represent archaeological information.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to Dave Cowley for his comments on the early draft of the paper. This research was sponsored by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through the Mobility Plus program (1088/MOB/2013/0). Data discussed in the text were collected due to a financial support provided by the Ministry of Science (N N109 160 140) and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (1548/11) of the Republic of Poland, as well as thanks to the EU sponsored ArchaeoLandscapes Europe project (2010-1486/001-001).

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Correspondence to Łukasz Banaszek or Włodzimierz Rączkowski .

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Banaszek, Ł., Rączkowski, W. (2020). Interpreting Archaeological Features on the Wieprza River Floodplain, West Pomerania, Poland. In: Hadjimitsis, D., et al. Remote Sensing for Archaeology and Cultural Landscapes. Springer Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10979-0_12

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