From Air Survey to GIS-Aided Mapping, Photogrammetry-Based 3D Modelling and the Virtual Reconstructions of Czech Lowland Crop-Marked Archaeological Sites

In this paper we want to present how data acquired in the 25 years long period during aerial archaeological survey - carried out by the Prague Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences - of buried sites seasonally displayed through cropmarks have recently been processed in order to become a type of document of the same value as the documents produced by means of archaeological excavation, i.e. large scale maps and plans of the detected and photographed crop-marked sites. A principal attention is given to the application of modern methods of 3D modelling. Representative examples are gradually selected from several hundred archaeological sites hidden beneath the earth's surface and seasonally visible through 'vegetation/crop marks' in order to document the potential of such marks to get an idea of the layout of detected sites (individual features as well as complex settlement areas). A 'flight' over a virtual prehistoric or historical landscape in the form of animated video clips can then present in an attractive way, especially to the general public, the characteristic features of the past landscape.