Case Studies:Case study 37

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Remote Sensing for Dryland Geoarchaeological Investigations in Southern Libya
Nick Brooks, Kevin White, Ben Warr, Nick Drake and Sue McLaren

Abstract
This case study describes the use of satellite imagery in the Fezzan region of southern Libya to sites of particular interest from the perspective of geoarchaeological studies. Optical Landsat Thematic Mapper images are processed using a mixture modelling approach to identify gypsum deposits, while synthetic aperture radar data from ERS-2 are subject to factorial kriging in order to locate calcrete and silcrete duricrusts. Both gypsum and duricrust deposits are indicative of wetter environments in the past, formed by the evaporation of groundwater or the drying out of shallow saline water bodies. Mapping and dating of these deposits is used to provide a palaeoenvironmental context for archaeological studies of the Fezzan, which has a rich record of Palaeolithic and Neolithic occupation, and was also home to a sizeable settled population during the Garamantean period from around 500 BC to 500 AD.

Click on the link below for a more detailed summary of this project.

Remote Sensing for Dryland Geoarchaeological Investigations in Southern Libya: Preliminary Findings from the Fezzan Project.

Keywords: Lybia, Fezzan, satellite imagery, palaeoenvironment, Garamantean, Palaeolithic, Neolithic

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