CORONA Photographs in Monsoonal Semi‐arid Environments: Addressing Archaeological Surveys and Historic Landscape Dynamics over North Gujarat, India

Here we illustrate a ground map approach that uses orthorectified CORONA KH4B images and declassified topographical maps to study historical land‐use dynamics and to help planning archaeological survey in the monsoonal semi‐arid alluvial plains of North Gujarat, India. In spite of its generalized use in archaeological applications, CORONA photographs have rarely been used in Indian archaeological contexts. The methods discuss a cost‐effective and integrated protocol for: (i) obtaining ground control points (GCPs) and orthorectify CORONA photographs when very high‐resolution imagery or detailed topographic maps are not available; and (ii) evaluating the integration of declassified datasets into Google Earth Pro for addressing archaeological surveys in remote areas. The merging of CORONA imagery with declassified USA and the former USSR historical military maps provided a picture of the human–environment interaction in North Gujarat of the past 40 years, prior to the intense development of mechanical agriculture and regional irrigation channels. We conclude by identifying the human and climate‐induced taphonomical processes that are obliterating a fragile landscape characterized by archaeological scatters located in fossilized sand dunes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  L. Deuel.  Flights Into Yesterday: The Story of Aerial Archaeology , 1969 .

[2]  A. Kar.  Neotectonic influences on morphological variations along the coastline of Kachchh, India , 1993 .

[3]  Innovative military mapping using aerial photography in the first world war: Sinai, Palestine and Mesopotamia 1914-1919 , 1994 .

[4]  S. Tandon,et al.  Aggradation history and luminescence chronology of Late Quaternary semi-arid sequences of the Sabarmati basin, Gujarat, Western India , 1997 .

[5]  R. Bindschadler,et al.  Changes in the west antarctic ice sheet since 1963 from declassified satellite photography , 1998, Science.

[6]  G. Mathew,et al.  The influence of the South‐west Indian monsoon on continental deposition over the past 130 kyr, Gujarat, western India , 1999 .

[7]  John M. Logsdon,et al.  Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites , 1999 .

[8]  Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites , 2000 .

[9]  A. Comfort,et al.  Crossing the Euphrates in antiquity: Zeugma seen from space , 2000 .

[10]  G. Tappan,et al.  Use of Argon, Corona, and Landsat Imagery to Assess 30 Years of Land Resource Changes in West-Central Senegal , 2000 .

[11]  REMOTE SENSING BASED PARAMETER EXTRACTION FOR EROSION CONTROL PURPOSES IN THE LOESS PLATEAU OF CHINA , 2001 .

[12]  M. Dinesh Kumar,et al.  Market instruments for demand management in the face of scarcity and overuse of water in Gujarat, Western India , 2001 .

[13]  Research to possibilities of Corona-satellite-data to replace conventional aerial photographs in geoarcheological studies, practised on Sai, Sudan , 2001 .

[14]  D. Donoghue,et al.  CORONA satellite photography: an archaeological application from the Middle East , 2002, Antiquity.

[15]  K. Challis,et al.  Corona Remotely-Sensed Imagery in Dryland Archaeology: The Islamic City of al-Raqqa, Syria , 2002 .

[16]  Angela Altmaier,et al.  Digital surface model generation from CORONA satellite images , 2002 .

[17]  総合地球環境学研究所.  Research Institute for Humanity and Nature , 2002 .

[18]  D. Kennedy.  Aerial Archaeology in the Middle East: The Role of the Military - Past, Present ? and Future??, , 2002 .

[19]  T. Wilkinson.  Archaeological landscapes of the Near East , 2003 .

[20]  A. Kar,et al.  Luminescence chronology of aeolian deposition during the Late Quaternary on the southern margin of Thar Desert, India , 2003 .

[21]  J. Ur.  CORONA Satellite Photography and Ancient Road Networks: A Northern Mesopotamian Case Study , 2003, Antiquity.

[22]  D. Maurya,et al.  Fluvial systems of the drylands of western India: a synthesis of Late Quaternary environmental and tectonic changes , 2003 .

[23]  K. Jacobsen.  DEM generation from satellite data , 2003 .

[24]  R. Bewley.  Aerial survey for archaeology , 2003 .

[25]  Nikolaos Galiatsatos,et al.  Assessment of the CORONA series of satellite imagery for landscape archaeology : a case study from the Orontes valley, Syria , 2004 .

[26]  M. Dinesh Kumar,et al.  Narmada Water for Groundwater Recharge in North Gujarat Conjunctive Management in Large Irrigation Projects , 2004 .

[27]  W. Gheyle,et al.  Evaluating CORONA: A case study in the Altai Republic (South Siberia) , 2004, Antiquity.

[28]  Value of Groundwater: Case studies in Banaskantha , 2004 .

[29]  Gi-Hong Kim,et al.  Mathematical modelling of historical reconnaissance CORONA KH-4B Imagery , 2004 .

[30]  U. Acar,et al.  COAST LINE CHANGE DETECTION USING CORONA , SPOT and IRS 1 D IMAGES , 2004 .

[31]  M. Fowler,et al.  Detection of archaeological crop marks on declassified CORONA KH‐4B intelligence satellite photography of Southern England , 2005 .

[32]  Guido Grosse,et al.  The use of CORONA images in remote sensing of periglacial geomorphology: an illustration from the NE Siberian coast , 2005 .

[33]  Coastal Morphodynamics and Asymmetric Development of the Godavari Delta: Implications to Facies Architecture and Reservoir Heterogeneity , 2006 .

[34]  B. Stichelbaut.  The application of First World War aerial photography to archaeology : the Belgian images , 2006 .

[35]  G. Philip,et al.  Satellite imagery as a resource in the prospection for archaeological sites in central Syria , 2006 .

[36]  Bjoern H Menze,et al.  Detection of Ancient Settlement Mounds - Archaeological Survey Based on the SRTM Terrain Model , 2006 .

[37]  G. Andersen,et al.  How to detect desert trees using corona images: Discovering historical ecological data , 2006 .

[38]  A. Singhvi,et al.  Continental record of the southwest monsoon during the last 130 ka: evidence from the southern margin of the Thar Desert, India , 2006 .

[39]  M. Fowler.  Archaeology through the keyhole: the serendipity effect of aerial reconnaissance revisited , 2006 .

[40]  Modelling the acquisition times of CORONA KH-4B satellite photographs , 2006 .

[41]  Bharat Lohani,et al.  GCP collection for corona satellite photographs: Issues and methodology , 2006 .

[42]  Alain De Wulf,et al.  Satellite imagery and archaeology: the example of CORONA in the Altai Mountains , 2006 .

[43]  Sources of Economic Growth and Acceleration in Gujarat , 2007 .

[44]  Anthony Beck,et al.  Best practice approaches for applying satellite imagery for landscape archaeological applications: a case study from the world heritage site of Sanchi, India , 2007, SPIE Remote Sensing.

[45]  D. Donoghue,et al.  Evaluation of Corona and Ikonos high resolution satellite imagery for archaeological prospection in western Syria , 2007, Antiquity.

[46]  H. Hamandawana,et al.  Proposed methodology for georeferencing and mosaicking Corona photographs , 2007 .

[47]  J. Ur,et al.  Formation and destruction of pastoral and irrigation landscapes on the Mughan Steppe, north-western Iran , 2007, Antiquity.

[48]  D. Donoghue,et al.  High Resolution Elevation Data Derived from Stereoscopic CORONA Imagery with Minimal Ground Control: An Approach Using Ikonos and SRTM Data , 2007 .

[49]  D C Thomas,et al.  The Archaeology Sites of Afghanistan in Google Earth , 2008 .

[50]  Political Economy of Groundwater Governance in Gujarat, India: A Micro Level Analysis , 2008 .

[51]  Andrew Jarvis,et al.  Hole-filled SRTM for the globe Version 4 , 2008 .

[52]  Jesse Casana,et al.  Stereo analysis, DEM extraction and orthorectification of CORONA satellite imagery: archaeological applications from the Near East , 2008, Antiquity.

[53]  Colin Pain,et al.  Applications of remote sensing in geomorphology , 2009 .

[54]  K. N. Rao.  CORONA satellite photographs — A new (Old) tool for earth scientists , 2009 .

[55]  Nikolaos Galiatsatos.  The shift from film to digital product: focus on CORONA imagery. , 2009 .

[56]  Gabriele Bitelli,et al.  Metrical use of declassified satellite imagery for an area of archaeological interest in Turkey , 2009 .

[57]  S. Parcak.  Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology , 2009 .

[58]  K. Akhilesh,et al.  Applications of satellite remote sensing for research and heritage management in Indian prehistory , 2010 .

[59]  Adrian Myers,et al.  Field Work in the age of Digital Reproduction: A Review of the Potentials and Limitations of Google Earth for Archaeologists , 2010 .

[60]  M. Madella,et al.  Social and environmental transitions in arid zones: the North Gujarat Archaeological Project — NoGAP , 2010 .

[61]  J. Ur,et al.  The geoarchaeology of route systems in northern Syria , 2010 .

[62]  M. Williams,et al.  A ∼200 ka record of climatic change and dune activity in the Thar Desert, India , 2010 .

[63]  Ola Hall,et al.  Remote Sensing in Social Science Research , 2010 .

[64]  M. D. Behera,et al.  Assessing Flood Induced Land-Cover Changes Using Remote Sensing and Fuzzy Approach in Eastern Gujarat (India) , 2011 .

[65]  A. S. Rajawat,et al.  Potential of satellite based sensors for studying distribution of archaeological sites along palaeo channels: Harappan sites a case study , 2011 .

[66]  P. Patias,et al.  Comparative analysis on the archaeological content of imagery from Google Earth , 2011 .

[67]  Analytical Approach for Representing the Water Landscape Evolution in Samarkand Oasis (Uzbekistan) , 2011 .

[68]  Denis Ruelland,et al.  Comparison of methods for LUCC monitoring over 50 years from aerial photographs and satellite images in a Sahelian catchment , 2011 .

[69]  Karsten Jacobsen,et al.  Scan Problems in Digital CORONA Satellite Images from USGS Archives , 2011 .

[70]  Chris H. Hugenholtz,et al.  Remote sensing and spatial analysis of aeolian sand dunes: A review and outlook , 2012 .

[71]  Jesse Casana,et al.  Swords into Ploughshares: Archaeological Applications of CORONA Satellite Imagery in the Near East , 2012 .

[72]  G. Philip,et al.  The Archaeological Exploitation of Declassified Satellite Photography in Semi-arid Environments , 2013 .

[73]  W. S. Hanson,et al.  Archaeology from Historical Aerial and Satellite Archives , 2013 .

[74]  I. Simpson,et al.  The dry tank: development and disuse of water management infrastructure in the Anuradhapura hinterland, Sri Lanka , 2013 .

[75]  Jesse Casana,et al.  The CORONA Atlas Project: Orthorectification of CORONA Satellite Imagery and Regional-Scale Archaeological Exploration in the Near East , 2013 .

[76]  M. Madella,et al.  Holocene Monsoon Dynamics and Human Occupation in Gujarat: Stable Isotopes Analyses on Plant Remains , 2013 .

[77]  Ruman Banerjee,et al.  Reconstruction of contested landscape: Detecting land cover transformation hosting cultural heritage sites from Central India using remote sensing , 2013 .

[78]  I. Fiz,et al.  The Middle Nile Valley: Elements in an approach to the structuring of the landscape from the Greco-Roman era to the nineteenth century , 2013 .

[79]  Evangelia Mimidou.  “In looks you resemble exactly one of the daughters of Cadmus” (Euripides, Bacchae, 917). The disguise of Pentheus in Bacchae and in “visual elements” , 2013 .

[80]  M. Fowler,et al.  Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs , 2013 .

[81]  C. Hritz.  A malarial-ridden swamp: using Google Earth Pro and Corona to access the southern Balikh valley, Syria , 2013 .

[82]  F. C. Conesa,et al.  Contributions of geoarchaeology and remote sensing to the study of Holocene hunter–gatherer and agro-pastoral groups in arid margins: The case of North Gujarat (Northwest India) , 2013 .

[83]  Jason Ur,et al.  SPYING ON THE PAST: Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs and Near Eastern Landscapes , 2013, Near Eastern Archaeology.

[84]  Bernardo Rondelli,et al.  Soviet military maps and archaeological survey in the Samarkand region , 2013 .

[85]  L. min.  Archaeological Landscapes of China and the Application of Corona Images , 2013 .

[86]  Uses of Declassified corona Photographs for Archaeological Survey in Armenia , 2013 .

[87]  Damian H. Evans,et al.  Pixels, Ponds and People: Mapping Archaeological Landscapes in Cambodia Using Historical Aerial and Satellite Imagery , 2013 .

[88]  Ute Beyer,et al.  Remote Sensing And Image Interpretation , 2016 .

[89]  R. Casteel.  FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES , 2016 .

[90]  R. Mohanty,et al.  GOOGLE EARTH AS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOOL IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD AN EXAMPLE FROM INDIA , 2022 .