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Aerial archaeology is an old prospection technique. The first attempts, to use the distant view for archaeological purposes were already made during the last century. There are only a few aerial photographs from the early times. Among these are recordings of Stonehendge (what else would you expect?) from 1906 and the Forum Romanum (1906 to 1908). They were made out of balloons.
More systematic recordings were done during World War I, when German military aviators - instructed by Theodor Wiegand - photographed ruined towns and cities in Sinai. In these years, airplanes were used the first time with aerial archaeology.
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In the 1920s, aerial archaeology got a theoretical background. Two persons are to be mentioned here: O.G.S. Crawford in England and P.A. Poidebard in Syria.
Crawford is said to be the inventor of scientific aerial archaeology. In March 1923, he gave a lecture to the Royal Geographical Society, where he showed aerial views of the "Celtic fields", old soil marked field boundaries at Windmill Hill, which he had photographed during 1922. In 1924, he made the first archaeological flying season over Wessex, producing several black and white plates of a very high quality.
After World War II, also the other western European countries started with systematic aerial archaeological research work. Dr. J.K. St.Joseph began flying over England. He was head of the Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs (CUCAP) until 1980.
In Austria, flying was prohibited until 1928, due to the peace terms after World War I. In the 1930s, aerial archaeological photographs were made at the "Braunsberg" and in the nearby area of Carnuntum, Lower Austria. In 1931, a sequence of vertical photographs from the Braunsberg was analyzed by E. Nischer-Falkenhof to support his excavations.
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BRAUNSBERG - Lower Austria Vertical photograph from 1931 showing banks of a Hallstatt period settlement.
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In Austria, systematic aerial archaeological research had its beginnings in 1961. In this year, a section for aerial photography was founded within the Austrian Society for Prehistory by G. Spitzer and an archive for aerial photographs was installed.
Contacts were made with the Austrian air force. These were intensivated by the then student H. Friesinger, who became leader of the aerial archaeological section a few years later.
Almost two decades later, in 1979, it became part of the Institute for Prehistory in Vienna and necessary instruments for analysis of aerial photographs were purchased. Over the years, better standards and a broader range of applications were requested, so that the archive got modern photogrammetrical hard- and software. By now, the aerial archive is the only institution in Austria, which is seriously dealing with aerial archaeology.
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