Aerial Photography and Archaeology 2003

On December 17th, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the world's first sustained, controlled flight in a powered aircraft. Although this flight cannot be regarded as the true beginning of aerial photography, and certainly not of aerial archaeology, its 100th anniversary was a prompt for aerial archaeologists to look back over the preceding century. Accordingly, the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History of Europe at Ghent University used this historic occasion to organize a congress (Ghent, December 10-12th, 2003). The conference began with a session devoted to the history of aerial photography. Subsequent sessions focused on recent discoveries and scientific work, on aerial archaeology and research or heritage management, and finally on the utilization of satellite remote sensing in archaeology. This publication contains the selected proceedings of this stimulating scholarly gathering, covering most of the present day research in European aerial photography, from Wales, Scotland and England, over France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain, to Slovakia and Poland.