Bachagha, N. orcid.org/0000-0002-9498-0729, Elnashar, A., Tababi, M. et al. (2 more authors) (2023) The Use of Machine Learning and Satellite Imagery to Detect Roman Fortified Sites: The Case Study of Blad Talh (Tunisia Section). Applied Sciences, 13 (4). 2613. ISSN: 2076-3417
Abstract
This study focuses on an ad hoc machine-learning method for locating archaeological sites in arid environments. Pleiades (P1B) were uploaded to the cloud asset of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) environment because they are not yet available on the platform. The average of the SAR data was combined with the P1B image in the selected study area called Blad Talh at Gafsa, which is located in southern Tunisia. This pre-desert region has long been investigated as an important area of Roman civilization (106 BCE). The results show an accurate probability map with an overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of 0.93 and 0.91, respectively, when validated with field survey data. The results of this research demonstrate, from the perspective of archaeologists, the capability of satellite data and machine learning to discover buried archaeological sites. This work shows that the area presents more archaeological sites, which has major implications for understanding the archaeological significance of the region. Remote sensing combined with machine learning algorithms provides an effective way to augment archaeological surveys and detect new cultural deposits.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | archaeological; machine learning; Google Earth Engine; remote sensing; fortified sites |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Aug 2025 09:26 |
Last Modified: | 06 Aug 2025 09:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/app13042613 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:230102 |