Remote sensing and its changing ways to archaeological sites detection and mapping

The dynamic development of remote sensing today also significantly enriches the archaeological investigation of prehistoric and historical settlement from above, especially within a heuristic approach (detection and photographic documentation of as yet unregistered areas with archaeological sources in the case of targeted aerial prospection, analysis and interpretation of orthophotographs and satellite data in the case of the use of orthophotomaps publicly available on the internet) and in the subsequent mapping and creation of plans of newly identified evidence of past settlement activities. The article provides a brief overview of technical innovations and possibilities in both mentioned steps of the research process and describes how the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences is currently processing aerial photographs (taken in 1992–2016 during aerial survey campaigns) into digital orthorectified and georeferenced maps (large areas with traces of past settlement activities visible mainly through indirect vegetation indicators) and detailed plans of individual sites, i.e., accumulations of buried anthropogenic features of prehistoric and historical origin in a small area