A Framework for Digital Wide-Area Survey from Aerial Photographs

Despite the potential offered by modern computer technology to the labour-intensive work of 'Aerial Archaeology', few applications have been published. Where developments have been made, they have tended to be carried out in a somewhat haphazard manner: thereby compounding problems with data standards and consistency: which are essential issues as we move towards a national archaeological database. This paper provides an introduction to digital aerial archaeology and describes the Aerial Archaeology System (AAS) - a computer package proposed as an integral component of the archaeologist's geographical information system (GIS) toolset, which assists the discovery, mapping, and classification of archaeological sites.