CORONA Satellite Imagery and Ancient Near Eastern Landscapes

The declassification of imagery from CORONA and subsequent intelligence satellite programs has inspired a revolution in landscape archaeology in the Near East. CORONA imagery is inexpensive, easily accessible, of high spatial resolution, and in many cases predates destructive modern development. It has become a standard tool for both remote sensing analysis and field survey. This chapter reviews how archaeologists have used CORONA to study settlement, movement, and land use via case studies from Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

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