Skip to main content

Skin Deep: LiDAR and Good Practice of Landscape Archaeology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics

Part of the book series: Natural Science in Archaeology ((ARCHAEOLOGY))

Abstract

LiDAR—like photography and other visual technologies—not only produces pictures but extends our power to detect, record, and imagine landscapes. It allows very precise three-dimensional mapping of the surface of the earth, generating as it does high-resolution topographic data even where surface is obscured by forest and vegetation. Interpretation of LiDAR data poses much more than just technical challenges. What makes LiDAR different from other topographic techniques is absence of selectiveness: data are typically gathered across complete landscape blocks recording landscape in an indiscriminate way. This allows us to address complex sites as integral parts of landscapes and as landscapes in themselves. In this way we can analyze complex sites as palimpsests, created through processes and practices that accumulated and inscribed new traces or erased old ones. Study of complex sites is thus part of the study of landscapes, landscape archaeology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allen CD (2011) On actor-network theory and landscape. Area 43(3):274–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey G (2007) Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology. J Anthropol Archaeol 26:198–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bender B (2002) Time and landscape. Curr Anthropol 43:103–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Challis K, Howard AJ (2012) The role of lidar intensity data in interpreting environmental and cultural archaeological landscapes. In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 163–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Challis K, Kincey M, Carey C, Howard AJ (2011) Airborne lidar intensity and geoarchaeological prospection in river valley floors. Archaeol Prospect 18:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowley DC (2012) In with the new, out with the old? Auto-extraction for remote sensing archaeology. In: Bostater CR, Mertikas SP, Neyt X, Nichol C, Cowley D, Bruyant J-P (eds) Remote sensing of the ocean, sea ice, coastal waters, and large water regions, 2012. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8532. SPIE, Edinburgh, article id. 853206

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford OGS (1953) Archaeology in the field. Phoenix House, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Devereux BJ, Amable GS, Crow P (2008) Visualisation of LiDAR terrain models for archaeological feature detection. Antiquity 82(316):470–479

    Google Scholar 

  • Doneus M, Briese C, Fera M, Janner M (2008) Archaeological prospection of forested areas using full-waveform airborne laser scanning. J Archaeol Sci 35:882–893

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halliday S (2012) I walked, I saw, I surveyed, but what did I see? …and what did I survey? In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 67–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser K (2007) Shadow sites: photography, archaeology, and the British landscape 1927–1955. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse R (2010) LiDAR-derived local relief models – a new tool for archaeological prospection. Archaeol Prospect 17(2):67–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs KF (1999) An investigation of RGB multi-band shading for relief visualisation. Int J Appl Earth Observ Geoinf 1(3–4):181–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold T (2000) The perception of the environment: essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold T (2004) Culture on the ground: the world perceived through the feet. J Mater Cult 9(3):315–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (2007) Ideas of landscape. Blackwell, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Knappett C (2005) Thinking through material culture: an interdisciplinary perspective. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Kokalj Z, Zakšek K, Oštir K (2012) Visualizations of lidar derived relief models. In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 102–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (1986) Visualization and cognition: drawing things together. Knowl Soc Stud Sociol Cult Present 6:1–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (1987) Science in action: how to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (1994) Pragmatogonies: a mythical account of how humans and nonhumans swap properties. Am Behav Sci 37(6):791–808

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (1999) Pandora’s hope: essays on the reality of science studies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (2001) What is iconoclash ? Or is there a world beyond. In: Weibel P, Latour B (eds) Iconoclash, beyond the image-wars in science, religion and art. MIT Press, London, pp 14–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (2004) How to talk about the body? The normative dimension of science studies. Body Soc 10(2–3):205–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas G (2005) The archaeology of time. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas G (2010) Triangulating absence: exploring the fault-lines between archaeology and anthropology. In: Garrow D, Yarrow T (eds) Archaeology and anthropology. Understanding similarity, exploring difference. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 28–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas G (2012) Understanding the archaeological record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Meng X, Currit N, Zhao K (2010) Ground filtering algorithms for airborne LiDAR data: a review of critical issues. Remote Sens 2(3):833–860

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mlekuž D (2011) Messy landscapes manifesto. AARGnews 44:22–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Mlekuž D (2012) Messy landscapes: lidar and practices of landscaping. In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 102–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Olivier L (2001) Duration, memory and the nature of the archaeological record. In: Karlsson H (ed) It’s about time. The concept of time in archaeology. Bricoleur Press, Göteborg, pp 61–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen B (2010) In defense of things: archaeology and the ontology of objects. AltaMira Press, Plymouth

    Google Scholar 

  • Opitz R (2012) An overview of airborne and terrestrial laser scanning in archaeology. In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 13–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Opitz R, Nuninger L (2010) Thinking through topography. Presentation at the Theoretical Roman archaeology conference TRAC, Oxford, 25–28 Mar 2010

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer R (2012) Reading aerial images. In: Opitz RS, Cowley DC (eds) Interpreting archaeological topography: lasers, 3D data, observation, visualisation and applications. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 79–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Samberg A (2007) An implementation of the ASPRS LAS Standard. The Analyst XXXVI:363–372. http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVI/3-W52/final_papers/Samberg_2007.pdf

  • Thrift N (2003) Performance and…. Environ Plan A 35:2019–2024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull D (2000) Mason, tricksters and cartographers: comparative studies in the sociology of scientific and indigenous knowledge. Harwood, Amsterdam

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Waterton E (2012) Landscape and non-representational theories. In: Howard P, Thompson I, Waterton E (eds) The Routledge companion to landscape studies. Routledge, London, pp 66–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Wylie A (2002) Thinking from things: essays in the philosophy of archaeology. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Wylie JW (2007) Landscape. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Zakšek K, Oštir K, Kokalj Ž (2011) Sky-view factor as a relief visualization technique. Remote Sens 3:398–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dimitrij Mlekuž .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mlekuž, D. (2013). Skin Deep: LiDAR and Good Practice of Landscape Archaeology. In: Corsi, C., Slapšak, B., Vermeulen, F. (eds) Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01784-6_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics