About

The Project

This project seeks to improve knowledge of the history and development of the landscape of the western lowlands of Romania by the application of archaeological aerial reconnaissance. Though new to this area, this survey technique is well established as the single most important method of finding new archaeological sites in lowland arable areas in large parts of western Europe.

The project has focused on the transitional period from Iron Age state to Roman province in the area of south-western Transylvania. However, since aerial reconnaissance is a multi-period survey methodology, the project set out also to record all archaeological sites which were visible from the air regardless of their period.

The imagery was collected bewteen 1998 and 2002 as part of a programme of aerial survey in Western Translyvania undertaken by Prof. Bill Hanson, University of Glagow, with the assistance of Dr. Ioana Oltean, University of Exeter, and in collaboration with the National Museum of Transylvanian History / Muzeul National de Istorie a Transilvaniei.

Aims

1. To esablish the parameters for the application of aerial reconnaissance in the particualr environmental, soil and agricultural conditions pertaining in Romania

2. To increase understanding of the history and development of the landscape of, in the first instance, Western Transylvania, particularly from later prehistory to the immediate post-Roman period.

Funding

Funding for the acquisition of the imagery was from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. The archive was created with funds from ArchaeoLanscapes Europe.