The Potential for Archaeological Mapping Using GPS and Satellite Imagery

Peter Dare

Abstract:	Merv, in Turkmenistan, is one of the oldest and most completely preserved cities along the Silk Routes in central Asia. The remains span 4000 years of human history. It was a key city in the trade routes between Europe and India and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Many buildings, dating back more than 2500 years still exist on the site, and archaeologists have been carrying out fieldwork on the site since 1992 under the auspices of the International Merv Project (IMP). The IMP was initiated mainly due to a rising water table combined with a rising population: together these pressures threatened the buildings. This paper details the approach taken to provide a GPS geodetic control framework for current and future archaeological fieldwork. The GPS campaign took place in September 2000. The control network was linked to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) by use of data from the International GPS Service. By linking the network to the ITRF, the coordinate system can be re-established in the future should the monumentation be destroyed. Processing has been carried out using Leica™s SKI-Pro software. Results show that an accuracy of approximately 20 cm is achievable processing vectors of 2000 km in length. This data will be reprocessed later using the University of New Brunswick™s scientific GPS software package DIPOP. The primary purpose of the control provision was to determine coordinates of visible Ground Control Points (GCPs) for satellite imagery to be obtained in April 2001. The satellite imagery will then be used to create a base map. The base map will enable isolated archaeological mapping information to be combined into one common spatial framework. This paper therefore also discusses selection and coordination of the GCPs.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2001 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2001 Westin Long Beach Hotel Long Beach, CA
Pages:	281 - 287
Cite this article:	Dare, Peter, "The Potential for Archaeological Mapping Using GPS and Satellite Imagery," Proceedings of the 2001 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Long Beach, CA, January 2001, pp. 281-287.
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