Ukraine Working Group

A three-year project, undertaken by the Ukraine Working Group, began in 2022 as a response to Putin’s aggressive war on Ukraine. We chose to examine a 110 x 60 km area with mixed soils to produce a dot distribution map and database of archaeological features identified. Source data were Google Earth images (2007 to 2022), and declassified HEXAGON photographs taken in 1982. The intent was to provide both archaeological value to Ukrainian archaeologists and demonstrate ways in which aerial or satellite images, which are currently underused in Ukraine, may benefit research in that country.

Our survey recorded 10,608 features of which 7,639 are considered to be archaeological and include habitation sites, hillforts, mounds and field systems. Not all are new. A further 447 features were recorded from the Soviet era which are now abandoned or destroyed and some 2,522 non-archaeological features have been identified, many of which have the potential to be confused with archaeological features when viewed from an airborne perspective.

A second report has been submitted to Arheologia in which we examine habitation sites, of which we identified some 240, in more detail, consider the designs of lines of mounds and present three case studies of local areas that have been mapped in some detail. Other reports on specific types of site may be submitted elsewhere.

Our results have been transferred to an interactive web app by Martin Fowler and Alex Kariaka, our Ukrainian collaborator, plans to visit some sites in the field later this year.