Roman military settlements in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The contribution of historical and modern aerial photography, satellite imagery and airborne LiDAR

Abstract

In order to understand the landscape in detail, we have combined airborne LiDAR data with historic and modern aerial photos and satellite imagery. This is a valuable method since each technique reveals different features, making it possible to maximise the results (Crutchley 2009). The combination of these tools with field surveying and GIS allowed us to develop new low-cost methodologies especially effective when dealing with these kinds of structures in almost every type of terrain (Costa García et al. 2015b). Moreover, we were able not only to detect new archaeological features but also to develop new morphological and landscape analysis for the study of Roman military sites by using GIS tools (Costa García 2015).