More monuments revealed by the heatwave

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/15/millennia-of-human-activity-heatwave-reveals-lost-uk-archaeological-sites

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-45189449/hot-weather-reveals-hidden-history-to-archaeologists

[Patrick Waterson]

Quote of the week: "We're standing on this, aren't we?"

It has been an excellent opportunity to go site-spotting; our archaeologists missed a trick in 1976, which could have been a superb year for aerial revelations.  Thankfully they are taking advantage of conditions this time.

[Mick Hession]

I suspect the fact that cheap drones weren't available in 1976 had something to do with that.

Cheers
Mick

[Erpingham]

It has been an excellent opportunity to go site-spotting; our archaeologists missed a trick in 1976, which could have been a superb year for aerial revelations.  Thankfully they are taking advantage of conditions this time.

I was studying archaeology in 76, and my recollection is that there was quite a rise in sightings then, which led to wider interest in the potential of aerial photography.  What there wasn't was a systematic approach, with employed survey teams and interpretation.  Mapping from photos was also harder before modern computing.

[Jim Webster]

I remember reading an article back in '76 where the comment was made that they were hiring all the planes and photo-recce equipment they could.
We forget the sheer cost of getting aerial photographs done to order back then

[Patrick Waterson]

Good point.  It looks as if I was mistaken.

[Jim Webster]

Good point.  It looks as if I was mistaken.

even then it wasn't a new trick, Woolly at Ur tells of how he discovered the graves because they were standing on a low rise as the sun set and could see, because of the angle of the light and soil differences,all the tops of the shafts. So he had people frantically putting stones or markers on each shaft top as others directed them from the mount

[Erpingham]

Good point.  It looks as if I was mistaken.

even then it wasn't a new trick, Woolly at Ur tells of how he discovered the graves because they were standing on a low rise as the sun set and could see, because of the angle of the light and soil differences,all the tops of the shafts. So he had people frantically putting stones or markers on each shaft top as others directed them from the mount

If I remember my history of archaeology, the potential of aerial photography was noted from the beginning, when it was being developed by the military in WWI.