The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones or RPA) in archaeology has expanded significantly over the last twenty years. Improvements in terms of the reliability, size, and manageability of these aircraft have been largely complemented by the high resolution and spectral bands provided by the sensors of the different cameras that can be incorporated into their structure. If we add to this the functionalities and improvements that photogrammetry programs have been experiencing in recent years, we can conclude that there has been a qualitative leap in the possibilities, not only of geometric documentation and in the presentation of the archaeological data, but in the incorporation of non-intrusive high-resolution analytics. The work that we present here gives a sample of the possibilities of both geometric documentation, creation of 3D models, their subsequent printing with different materials, and techniques to finally show a series of analytics from images with NGB (Nir + Green + Blue), Red Edge, and Thermographic cameras applied to various archaeological sites in which our team has been working since 2013, such as Clunia (Peñalba de Castro, Burgos), Puig Rom (Roses), Vilanera (L’Escala, Girona), and Cosa (Ansedonia, Italy). All of them correspond to different chronological periods as well as to varied geographical and morphological environments, which will lead us to propose the search for adequate solutions for each of the environments. In the discussions, we will propose the lines of research to be followed in a project of these characteristics, as well as some results that can already be viewed.

This article presents the first results obtained from the use of high-resolution images from the SAR-X sensor of the PAZ satellite platform. These are in result of the application of various radar image-treatment techniques, with which we wanted to carry out a non-invasive exploration of areas of the archaeological site of Clunia (Burgos, Spain). These areas were analyzed and contrasted with other sources from high-resolution multispectral images (TripleSat), or from digital surface models obtained from Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data from the National Plan for Aerial Orthophotography (PNOA), and treated with image enhancement functions (Relief Visualization Tools (RVT)). Moreover, they were compared with multispectral images created from the Infrared Red Blue (IRRB) data contained in the same LiDAR points.

The Roman city of Clunia (nowadays at the Spanish province of Burgos) became the capital of the Tarraconensis conventus with the Augustan provincial reform, which provided a major boost for its urban development. The suitability of the city’s location is evident by the fact it was built on a plateau concealing an underground karst cave that provided direct access to water without requiring major engineering works. The waters in this cave were used and administered by the people, and some of its galleries acted as a shrine for worshipping. This study provides an overview of the modern drainage systems in order to study more profoundly the forms of urban organization, on which we have only partial knowledge currently, given the breadth of the field. We believe that some of these drains are actually tracks of ancient streets that have been fossilized in orography. To reach these conclusions, we analysed several IR photographs, and applied hydrological GIS functions to observe the path of these tracks and their relationship to what is currently known of the city’s urban layout. This analysis of the surface was completed by relating it to the karst topography by conducting geophysical surveys in areas where wells giving access to the cave were detected using radiolocation. Finally, we applied a range of hydrological GIS functions and indexes on a high-resolution DEM, obtained from LIDAR technology (5 m/pixel), to confirm how the drainage worked. The results have highlighted landforms on the plateau, providing new hypotheses about Clunia’s urban development. Repetitive modulations were also observed in the distances between some of the drains, thus making for a better understanding of the characteristics of an entire sector of the ancient city. We therefore believe that the drainage calculation method may be a useful tool for the study of urban structures that have not been excavated yet.

La muralla de Puig Rom supone una pieza arquitectónica clave para el período visigótico en el Alt Empordà. Nuestra investigación ha permitido alargar la vida útil del núcleo desde mediados del siglo vii hasta bien entrado el período franco y añadir a la función de control territorial y de manifestación de prestigio del castrum una perduración como núcleo agropastoral. El análisis en curso de las técnicas constructivas pone de manifiesto la destreza en la explotación de los recursos geológicos del lugar y la solidez de una construcción que apenas utiliza ligantes para la cohesión de sus elementos