Caucasia top-down: Remote sensing data for survey in a high altitude mountain landscape

Until recently, surveys in mountainous areas were focused on traditional survey techniques such as field walking. Remote sensing data, however, has become more and more important in this field. This article will evaluate several methods of remote sensing such as aerial photography, satellite images or images from un-manned aerial vehicles (UAV) as instruments for detecting archaeological sites in mountains. It will discuss the origin of site visibility such as relief, crop-marks or snow-markers, and the related archaeological features underground. It will also discuss internal difficulties of remote sensing data in terrain with heterogeneous height structure. On the basis of a case-study from the North Caucasus (Russia), the potential and the limits to the application of a research strategy using remote sensing in mountain archaeology will be discussed. Cross-checking with non-destructive prospection methods such as geophysics and soil sciences allows the evaluation of the percentage of the sites detectable from above ground.