M. Ioannides (Ed.): EuroMed 2010, LNCS 6436, pp. 318–331, 2010.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
Hyperspectral Ground Truth Data for the Detection of
Buried Architectural Remains
Athos Agapiou
1
, Diofantos Hadjimitsis
1
, Apostolos Sarris
2
,
Kyriacos Themistocleous
1
, and George Papadavid
1
1
Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
Cyprus University of Technology, 3603, Limassol, Cyprus
{athos.agapiou,d.hadjimitsis,k.themistocleous,
g.papadavid}@cut.ac.cy
2
Laboratory of Geophysical - Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment, Institute for
Mediterranean Studies Foundation for Research & Technology, Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.), 74100,
Rethymno, Crete
asaris@ret.forthnet.gr
Abstract. The aim of the study is to validate hyperspectral ground data for the
detection of buried architectural remains. For this reason spectro-radiometric
measurements were taken from an archaeological area in Cyprus. Field spectro-
radiometric measurements were undertaken from March to May of 2010. Spec-
tro-radiometric measurements were taken over the previously detected magnetic
anomalies using the GER 1500 spectroradiometer and they were found to be in
a general agreement with the geophysical results. The results of the subsequent
excavations which took place in the area verified partially the geophysical and
spectro-radiometric measurements. However, the results obtained from the in-
situ spectro-radiometric campaigns were found very useful for detecting spec-
tral vegetation anomalies related with buried features. This is an issue which the
authors will continue to investigate since it has proven that local conditions of
the area, such as geology, is a key parameter for the detection of buried archi-
tectural remains.
Keywords: Spectro-radiometric measurements, hyperspectral data, detection of
architectural remains.
1 Introduction
Remote Sensing techniques, including ground spectro-radiometric data, offer new
perspectives in archaeological research [1-3]. High multispectral resolution satellite
images indicate that changes of the spectral signature of vegetation may have oc-
curred due to the presence of buried architectural remains. Lasaponara and Masini [4]
in their study have successfully identified subsurface monuments from high multi-
spectral resolution satellite images using spectral signature anomalies (Fig. 1). The
use of hyperspectral satellite data has been applied successfully in different studies in
order to identify architectural remains [5-8].