Remote Sensing in Archaeology: Some Resources

Tony Cagle of Archaeo-Blog writes: "A reader asked about any recent general books on remote sensing in archaeology. I haven't seen anything really related to that, mostly just journal articles and such that aren't really available (or probably understandable) to the general reader. Do you know of any?"

I've seen recent mentions of the new book called Remote Sensing in Archaeology edited by Jay Johnson, although I can't say I've actually seen it to crack the cover. From the description, it looks like a compilation of articles by leaders in the field, writing about their various experiences trying different techniques, so it may not be that useful to the general reader. There are several other books that might be of use to understanding the various concepts of remote sensing that I've found and listed below.

• Remote Sensing in Archaeology, Jay K. Johnson, University of Alabama Press 2006 (pricegrabber link)
• Remote Sensing in Archaeology, same book, University of Alabama link
• Field Methods in Remote Sensing, from Guilford Press, 2004, by Roger M McCoy, is a text with different chapters on specific methods which might be of interest
• People and Pixels is an edited book by the Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change, on the use of remote sensing in social sciences, from the National Academy Press, and has a fairly theoretical bent rather than nuts and bolts, but is free to read online
• Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing is an introduction by Morris Juppenlatz, but it's almost a decade old now
• Introductory Remote Sensing from Routledge; while it's dated 2000, it got a very good review in Geology Today

For more basic information, I have collected some additional links, a bibliography (now including these books), and some definitions here at About:

• Applications in Remote Sensing
• Definitions of Different Types of Remote Sensing
• Bibliography of Remote Sensing

And finally, other folks here at About have some great resources too:

• Geographic Technology, from Matt Rosenberg, About's guide to Geography, has written several articles on different topics in remote sensing over the years
• Mapping, Photos, Remote Sensing, GIS, from Steve Nix, About's guide to Forestry

See Tony's discussion about RS for some interesting insights into the use of remote sensing in the field.