Aerial archaeology is the study of archaeological leftovers by examining them from elevation. It is one of the oldest prospecting methods. It is very productive and cheap, Aerial archaeology is frequent opinion that an aerial archaeologist is sitting in an aricraft, trying to discover archaeological sites and to take a few good photographs of them.To perform aerial archaeology you can also used satellite images, thermal images or airborne radar images.

The advantages of gaining a good aerial vision of the ground had been long appreciated by archaeologists as a high viewpoint permits a enhanced appreciation of excellent details and their relationships within the wider site context. Early investigators attempted to gain birdseye views of sites by hot air balloons, scaffolds or cameras attached to kites. Following the invention of the aricraft and Aerial photography helps military during the First and Second World Wars, archaeologists were able to more effectively use the technique to find out and record archaeological sites.

Normally the photographs are taken perpendicularly that is, from directly overhead, or obliquely, meaning that they are taken at an angle. In order to provide a three-dimensional effect, an additional, slightly offset, photo may be taken to provide two images with can be viewed stereoscopically. Aerial archaeology helps to choose a more distinct viewpoint ,the structures become clearer to you and the pattern becomes comprehensible

Large sites could for the first time be viewed exactly, in their overall and within their landscape. This aided the production of drawn plans and also stimulated archaeologists to look away from the discrete monument and to appreciate a site's role within its setting. Photos are taken vertically for the purposes of planning and spatial analysis and indirectly to emphasis certain features or give perception. Through the process of photogrammetric, vertical photos can be converted into scaled plans

You can also see other methods of archaeology: