Call for Papers

Chairs: Irmela HERZOG | David BIBBY, Germany

The aim of this session is to showcase best practice applications that derive new archaeological insights from analysing historical maps by using digital technologies. Detailed historical maps indicate the locations of possible archaeological features such as buildings, bridges, and wells or even complete deserted settlements. Historical maps can clarify the interpretation of features detected in aerial photographs, Lidar data or by other archaeological survey techniques. Some historical maps depicting territories outside of Europe allow the reconstruction of land use patterns before the onset of colonization by Europeans. If the relief of a landscape has changed due to river regulations or bulk material extraction such as quarries or open-cast mining, historical maps may still show the landscape before these immense modifications. Therefore, historical maps are often an indispensable basis for archaeological landscape analysis.

Only with historical expertise, the full potential of an old map is exploited. Archaeologists working with historical maps should be aware that these maps show the aspects of a region that were important to the map maker or those who commissioned the maps. Distortions and omissions may result from deliberate decisions or lack of skills.

This session invites papers dealing with topics such as

  • Assessing the positional accuracy and rectification of historical maps with the aim of mapping past buildings and other archaeological sites and other features of interest as exactly as possible.
  • Combining archaeological data and data recorded on historical maps in a geographical information system for presenting or analysing the history of urban or rural landscapes.
  • Landscape analysis: reconstructing the land use and/or the relief based on historical maps.
  • Use of historical maps in an agent-based approach, for estimating the carrying capacity of the landscape or for any other archaeological analysis
  • Validating archaeological approaches based on data derived from historical maps.

All contributions that integrate data derived from historical maps and archaeological data by applying digital technologies are welcome.

Submit your abstract via online-form.