Brief History of Aerial Archaeology
Aerial archaeology is an old prospection technique.
The first attempts, to use the distant view for archaeological purposes were already made during the last century.
There are only a few aerial photographs from the early times.
Among these are recordings of Stonehendge (what else would you expect?) from 1906 and the Forum Romanum (1906 to 1908). They were made out of balloons.
More systematic recordings were done during World War I, when German military aviators - instructed by Theodor Wiegand - photographed ruined towns and cities in Sinai.
In these years, airplanes were used the first time with aerial archaeology.
AERIAL CARTOON
In the 1920s, aerial archaeology got a theoretical background.
Two persons are to be mentioned here: O.G.S. Crawford in England and P.A. Poidebard in Syria.
Crawford is said to be the inventor of scientific aerial archaeology. In March 1923, he gave a lecture
to the Royal Geographical Society, where he showed aerial views of the "Celtic fields", old soil marked field boundaries at Windmill Hill, which he had photographed during 1922.
In 1924, he made the first archaeological flying season over Wessex, producing several black and
white plates of a very high quality.
After World War II, also the other western European countries started with systematic aerial archaeological research work. Dr. J.K. St.Joseph began flying over England.
He was head of the Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs (CUCAP) until 1980.
