Ancient World Mapping Center

Several volumes have arrived in UNC’s library recently that are exciting for those interested in approaches to modeling the past and collecting data about the nature of settled landscapes in antiquity. Focusing on aerial photography, terrestrial and airborne laser scanning, and other dynamic topics, these volumes remind us of the value of studying terrain in which humans have lived – both for the sake of the land forms themselves and also for the evidence of human activity preserved therein. This is particularly true of the need to exploit the vast legacy of twentieth century aerial photography data to mine information from them, in particular for cases where the landscape has changed substantially over the course of the past 50 to 70 years, as well as moving forward with the advanced technologies that now enable digital terrain mapping and modeling.

• G. Ceraudo. ed. 2010. 100 anni di archeologia aerea in Italia : atti del convegno internazionale, Roma, 15-17 aprile 2009. Rome: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato. ISBN-13: 9788884313768.
• W. S. Hanson and I. A. Oltean. 2013. Archaeology from Historical Aerial and Satellite Archives. New York: Springer. ISBN-13: 978-1-4614-4505-0.
• R. S. Opitz and D. Cowley. 2013. Interpreting Archaeological Topography: Lasers, 3D Data, Observation, Visualisation and Applications. Oxford: Oxbow. ISBN-13: 978-1842175163.