Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data
This study investigates the ability of field spectra measurements to discriminate between soils from non-sites (natural soils) and from archaeological sites, such as middens (rubbish-dumping areas) and animal byres. First, we tested whether there is a difference in the concentration of elements betw...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Spectroscopy |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5158465 |
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| author | Olaotse Lokwalo Thabeng Elhadi Adam Stefania Merlo |
| author_facet | Olaotse Lokwalo Thabeng Elhadi Adam Stefania Merlo |
| author_sort | Olaotse Lokwalo Thabeng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study investigates the ability of field spectra measurements to discriminate between soils from non-sites (natural soils) and from archaeological sites, such as middens (rubbish-dumping areas) and animal byres. First, we tested whether there is a difference in the concentration of elements between different soil types using analysis of variance while random forest (RF) and forward variable selection (FVS) methods were used to select important soil elements for the classification of the archaeological sites. In the second approach, we evaluated the ability of field spectroscopy reflectance measurements to discriminate among nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung byres. The guided regularised random forest (GRRF) was used to identify important wavelengths for the discrimination of abovementioned archaeological and nonarchaeological soils. Thereafter, the selected soil elements and wavelengths were used as input variables in the RF classification algorithm to classify the nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung. The findings reveal that there is a significant difference in the composition of chemical elements and spectral signatures of nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung. In summary, high classification accuracies achieved when using field spectroscopy data prove that remote sensing techniques can be used to exploit the spectral differences among the abovementioned soil types in mapping archaeological feature characteristics of farming communities’ settlements. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-24d05986bca841bb8b290f87cfbe48df |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2314-4920 2314-4939 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Spectroscopy |
| spelling | doaj-art-24d05986bca841bb8b290f87cfbe48df2025-02-03T05:50:17ZengWileyJournal of Spectroscopy2314-49202314-49392019-01-01201910.1155/2019/51584655158465Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral DataOlaotse Lokwalo Thabeng0Elhadi Adam1Stefania Merlo2Archaeology Unit, University of Botswana, 4775 Notwane Rd, Private Bag, UB 00703, Gaborone, BotswanaSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South AfricaSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South AfricaThis study investigates the ability of field spectra measurements to discriminate between soils from non-sites (natural soils) and from archaeological sites, such as middens (rubbish-dumping areas) and animal byres. First, we tested whether there is a difference in the concentration of elements between different soil types using analysis of variance while random forest (RF) and forward variable selection (FVS) methods were used to select important soil elements for the classification of the archaeological sites. In the second approach, we evaluated the ability of field spectroscopy reflectance measurements to discriminate among nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung byres. The guided regularised random forest (GRRF) was used to identify important wavelengths for the discrimination of abovementioned archaeological and nonarchaeological soils. Thereafter, the selected soil elements and wavelengths were used as input variables in the RF classification algorithm to classify the nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung. The findings reveal that there is a significant difference in the composition of chemical elements and spectral signatures of nonsites, middens, vitrified dung, and nonvitrified dung. In summary, high classification accuracies achieved when using field spectroscopy data prove that remote sensing techniques can be used to exploit the spectral differences among the abovementioned soil types in mapping archaeological feature characteristics of farming communities’ settlements.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5158465 |
| spellingShingle | Olaotse Lokwalo Thabeng Elhadi Adam Stefania Merlo Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data Journal of Spectroscopy |
| title | Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data |
| title_full | Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data |
| title_fullStr | Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data |
| title_short | Spectral Discrimination of Archaeological Sites Previously Occupied by Farming Communities Using In Situ Hyperspectral Data |
| title_sort | spectral discrimination of archaeological sites previously occupied by farming communities using in situ hyperspectral data |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5158465 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT olaotselokwalothabeng spectraldiscriminationofarchaeologicalsitespreviouslyoccupiedbyfarmingcommunitiesusinginsituhyperspectraldata AT elhadiadam spectraldiscriminationofarchaeologicalsitespreviouslyoccupiedbyfarmingcommunitiesusinginsituhyperspectraldata AT stefaniamerlo spectraldiscriminationofarchaeologicalsitespreviouslyoccupiedbyfarmingcommunitiesusinginsituhyperspectraldata |