Seeing beneath the soil to uncover the past

Archaeology is no longer just about digging holes. New research by a team led from the University of Leeds promises to improve the investigation of our heritage from the air. The work should revolutionise the use of 'state-of-the-art' remote sensing technology, improving the 'hit rate' of aerial archaeology without physically disturbing sites of cultural heritage. Over half of the archaeological sites in the UK have been detected using aerial photographs. Heritage experts and researchers use these pictures to find where once obvious walls, tracks, ditches and pits are now buried by studying changes to crop growth or soil colour. However, this technique is difficult to use on heavy, clay-like soils because the dense soil structure makes it far harder to spot signs of the past. Even on well-drained soils, where the technique works best, many details of a settlement's layout will be missed.