Photo reading Working Group

Photo reading WG was established in April 2021. While we have discussed aerial images of different dates at different locations, membership of the group has meant that we also have been able to include mini seminar-type presentations about, for example, stone-walled sites in South Africa, Roman and medieval features, and landscapes in Spain and Poland respectively.

Full-scale talks have been given on Remote sensing (and other) results at Caričin Grad by Aleksandar Stamenković (since given as a talk for all AARG members) and on AI by Iris Kramer who gave a very Clear introduction to AI and how to train machines to ‘see’ our material and showed some of her results. Anyone wanting to keep up with her progress can access regular updates on Twitter .

Furthermore, Martin Fowler gave a talk about his Use of HEXAGON images at Masada and Machaerus. He has written a piece on that for AARGnews 64 which will give an idea of the high resolution of these 1970s images but will lack the 3D effect he achieved in the talk by rotating the images. This has been proposed as a future talk for AARG members.

The group reached its 34th meeting in July 2023 despite attendance numbers varying and the two time zones it usually spans. The group has continued to travel around – England, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, and Ukraine – and discuss aerial images and problems.

Starting with the 35th meeting, the discussion focused more on the stuff the members couldn’t understand than on the archaeological content with views reflecting some of the members’ specialist interests and the different places they had worked. It was decided to keep going in a similar way and to focus on specific themes as time progressed (for example, discussing film and processing faults). This may seem a bit like a specialist group, but it also offers opportunities for the people at all levels to learn from others in the group.

References

Fowler M.J.F. 2022.The archaeological potential of KH-9 HEXAGON satellite photographs: the Roman temporary camps and siege works at Machaerus and Masada. AARGnews 64, pp. 37-53.

  For further information about the working group contact @ Rog Palmer.

Skip to content