“Personal” multistage remote sensing and traditional field work to the archaeological analysis of complex landscapes: relationships, benefits and actual limitations

The Department of Archaeology at Siena has been engaged for several decades in the testing of new methodologies, new approaches and new instruments for construction of the archaeological record. The South Tuscan landscapes is characterized by a low level of visibility and heavy clay soils that have directed us towards those techniques of remote sensing managed directly by archaeologist and that we like to define as “personal”. We are referring particularly to those techniques that leave a wide choice to the archaeologist in the periods for carrying out data capture. We have begun to work on a systematic program of aerial survey, on Ikonos-2 and QuickBird-2 satellite imagery and on micro-digital terrain modelling using digital photogrammetry. On the ground our infra-site analysis has been improved by applying extensive magnetic survey, recently integrated with GPR survey; important gains have come from the systematic use of differential GPS and PDA devices.