IRES Track I: Terrestrial and UAS-based remote sensing, photogrammetry, and digital modeling of ancient marble quarries in Greece

Recent substantial technological progress has been made in the manufacturing and availability of unmanned aerial systems (UAS, also known as UAV or drones) and the lightweight active and passive sensing devices that can be integrated into their platform as payloads. The development of these integrated systems is driving an emergent field of aerial applications in field-based research.

Researchers can now capture location-embedded visible light aerial photographs with ease as well as remote sensing data at spectral, spatial, and temporal resolutions not achievable from terrestrial or satellite-based systems. In anticipation of the growth in aerial based research, this IRES project will provide training and resources for 12 U.S. undergraduate students to learn and operate UAS, become familiar with national UAS regulations and protocols, design and implement aerial surveys, process aerial data using photogrammetric and GIS software, and create products that integrate aerial and terrestrial datasets in a meaningful and informative way.

This IRES project centers on the geoarchaeology of ancient marble producing quarries in Greece that span from the Bronze Age through Early Byzantine period and will be conducted under the auspices of the Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Over the past few decades, geoarchaeologists, physicists, and chemists have developed a geochemical and stable isotope database to differentiate between the major marble producing quarries utilized in antiquity. The database is used to assess provenance of marble artifacts including statuary, architecture, and furniture. However, very little effort has been given to the survey and recording of the physical quarries themselves.

A thorough aerial and terrestrial survey of ancient marble quarry fields will provide improved assessment of the size and extent of quarry fields, dimensions of individual quarry pits, and the possibility of identifying previously unknown pits. Building from a review of maps and archaeology reports, IRES participants will design and implement data collecting missions with UAS platforms equipped with visual light cameras as well as multispectral and LiDAR sensors.

IRES participants will gain the skills necessary to process the data with photogrammetric and GIS software to develop accurate high-resolution three-dimensional point clouds. Participants will use the point clouds to render accurate georectified digital terrain models that include quarry boundaries, tailing piles, and slipways. Interpreted surface features will be verified by groundtruthing.

Participants will use the aerial and terrestrial imagery to generate accurate three-dimensional models of the quarry pits, allowing for the determination of quarry volumes and the calculation of the amount of extracted marble. IRES participants will integrate published geochemical and stable isotope datasets to each quarry model, and develop kmz-based online resource for geologists, geomorphologists, archaeologists, and others interested in ancient Greek marble resources.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.