Grants & bursaries

Principal Investigator: Susan Curran (The Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland)

Project description: A 2024 assessment of St. John’s Point, Co. Donegal (Ireland) recommended the undertaking of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) survey around 33 features presently under erosion. This proposal will undertake UAV survey at four shoreline areas around the headland to record the extent of features and model coastal and intertidal sites before further erosion to understand how they are being affected, and determine their purpose and extent of maritime activity. 
Area 1 is on the NW side of the headland close to a later medieval church with a 7th-century cross-inscribed slab with evidence of associated hut sites, pits, and landing places. Area 2 comprises an eroding slag heap extending along the cliff near the SW point of the headland. An aerial survey will help determine how far this feature extends and whether further features can be identified. Area 3 will target a ringfort which is actively slumping off the cliff on the eastern side. The aerial survey will record this monument to model the slumping, identify intertidal features and possible internal and external structures. Area 4 on the NE side of the headland is an intertidal complex consisting of metalled surface, artificially cleared shores and intertidal walls, boat channels, and a cairn. Modelling of the coast will determine their purpose and relationship to settlement and sea access.

AARGnews Publication: Pending, project ongoing.

Principal Investigator: Stephen Kay (British School at Rome, Italy)

Project description: The Roman-period vicus of Furfo in the Aterno valley of Abruzzo (central Italy) was first identified by its toponym recorded in an inscription of 58 BCE, later preserved in the name of the medieval church of S. Maria di Forfona. 
Limited investigations have been undertaken of the settlement, leaving numerous questions regarding its form, function and chronology. This settlement form, a vicus, has received little attention, with few investigated examples in central Italy. In 2023 a collaborative project commenced aiming to understand the topography and long-term occupation of the landscape of Furfo. The project has so far applied a range of non-invasive methodologies including geophysical prospection, airborne laser scanning and fieldwalking surveys, in combination with historical air photograph analysis.
The new study of the topography has revealed potential indicators as to the organisation of the ancient landscape, through the identification of hundreds of cropmarks corresponding with possible pit tombs, likely dating to the Iron Age. The project now seeks to undertake UAV-based multispectral and RGB imaging to better capture the form, extent and spectral signature of the identified cropmarks. Operating at an appropriate resolution, the imaging will aid their comparison with the growing spatial dataset generated of the area.

AARGnews Publication: Pending, project ongoing.

Principal Investigator: Antonio Jesús Ortiz Villarejo (University of Jaén, Spain)

Project description: The fortification of Malaventura, situated within the Despeñaperros Natural Park (Jaén, Andalusia, Spain), has received scant scholarly attention and currently exists in a severely deteriorated state of preservation. The dense vegetation characteristic of the natural park (holm oak forest) obstructs accurate documentation of its layout, structures, and potential access routes, both aerially and terrestrially.
The work for which funding is requested will be incorporated into a comprehensive study of the fortification. This study will involve a systematic review of various archives and historical cartography, coupled with on-site documentation of the remaining standing structures that cannot be captured through aerial LiDAR.
The primary objective of this project is the generation of a high-density LiDAR point cloud. This will enable the creation of a digital terrain model (DTM) with a spatial resolution finer than 1.5 cm/pixel. This will, for the first time, allow for the acquisition of a plan of the existing structures, as well as potential access routes, which will complement the information obtained from the documentary analysis.
Through the joint interpretation of this data, we will be able to integrate the fortification into the historical dynamics of the region, providing knowledge that is currently non-existent.

AARGnews Publication: Pending, project ongoing.

Principal Investigator: Kseniia Bondar (Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences; Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine)

Project description: The project involves drone-based magnetometer prospecting of two Roman forts: Kamianka V (N46.79°; E31.70°) and another recently identified through satellite images (N46.78°; E31.73°), both located in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine. Fort Kamianka V arose in the first century AD on the northwestern border of the Olbian state. A ground-based magnetometer survey conducted in 2023 revealed the presence of double outer moats and clearly established the geometry of the inner eastern fortification. The use of a drone-based solution is expected to expand the scope of the geophysical survey. We also plan to survey the western inner fortification and the surrounding periphery, including the Mohyla Ardzhyholska burial mound.
While analysing satellite images, we noticed a structure 1.9 km southeast of Kamianka V that resembles the shape and size of the fort’s internal fortifications. It is located near the Dovha Mohyla burial mound and adjacent to the field road leading to Olbia Pontica. These two sites should undoubtedly be investigated using the same set of remote sensing techniques to uncover their potential interrelation. This study explores the potential of drone-based magnetometer surveys compared to traditional ground-based methods for mapping hidden earthwork structures with high resolution.

AARGnews Publication: AARGnews 71

Principal Investigator: Rog Palmer (AARG Ukraine Working Group)

Project description: The AARG Ukraine Project was established as a way of showing solidarity with the people of Ukraine after Russia’s illegal invasion in February 2022. The aim of the project is to use open-source satellite images to conduct an archaeological landscape survey of a 6,600 sq km area in the Cherkasy Oblast of Ukraine.
To date, some 80% of the study area has been surveyed and around 7,000 features have been identified. These are mainly archaeological features; prehistoric, historic, and Communist era sites. In addition, non-archaeological features that have the potential to be confused with archaeological features when viewed from an airborne perspective have also been identified.
Interim results have been reported in AARGnews as well as in an article in the Ukrainian journal Arheologia. One of the major outputs of the project is a publicly-available interactive ArcGIS Online web app where these features can be viewed and manipulated. The app is currently being accessed at a rate of ~2 hits per day, with occasional ‘spikes’ of interest of between 10 and 64 hits per day.
This application is to cover the cost of hosting of the web app for the next 5 years as a means of showcasing the study and providing an interactive means by which archaeologists, particularly those in Ukraine, can study the project results.

AARGnews Publication: AARGnews 70