Aerial Photogrammetry Applications
The Discovery Programme has undertaken a number of landscape studies where a block of new aerial photography has been commissioned from a commercial supplier (BKS Surveys Ltd). The scale is selected appropriate to the terrain and archaeology within the area, and normally ranges from 1:7500 to 1:1500.
The Discovery Programme has the ability and experience to undertake the ground control survey independently, and can use the software to perform aero-triangulation to pass the control across the whole project area. This means that when commissioning a project we can reduce the cost, if required, to the minimum of simply acquiring the imagery.
Projects to date
Mullaghfarna, Co. Sligo
Our first project which was carried out in conjuntion with Stefan Berg, NUI Galway. This project used two scales of photography; 1:1500 to capture, in detail, the morphology of the prehistoric enclosures on the plateau, and 1:7,500 to place the site in its landscape context. Excellent results were acheived which considerably increased the knowledge and understanding of the archaeology of the site. In the process the Discovery Programme proved the value of aerial photogrammetry as a landscape survey technique.
North Roscommon Landscape Project
Two phase of photography have been flown (1:7,500) and processed covering 140 square km centred on Tulsk, Co. Roscommon and central to the research module of the Medieval Rural Settlement Project. The orthoimages have been used as a basis for studying the chronology of the relict features in the landscape.
Inch Island, Lough Derravaragh, Co Roscommon
As part of the Lake Settlement Project studies of the Upper Shannon lakes a small photogrammetric project was undertaken using an intermediate scale of 1:3000.
Additional funding from the Heritage Council at the end of 2007 enabled the Discovery Programme to continue its research at the Hill of Tara. In order to understand the wider landscape context an area of 70km2 was selected centred on Tara, for which high resolution stereo photography was commissioned from BKS/Fugro. More.....