Application of an ASV for Coastal Underwater Archaeology

摘要

Coastal underwater archaeological sites are by nature dynamic, and often subject to disturbance from the action of waves, currents, sediment, and human activity. The need to document such sitescomprehensively, accurately, and quickly has been the driving force behind technological advances in predisturbance site mapping since the 1960s. Certain challenges remain constant: the need fortechnology to be affordable and robust, with efficient post-processing as well as data acquisition times. Non-engineers must be able to interpret the results and publish them according to archaeologicalconventions. Large ancient shallow water port sites, submerged settlements, and landscape surveys present additional difficulties because of the volume of data generated. In this paper we present results of two expeditions to map the submerged Herodian structures at Caesarea Maritima, Israel, using a robotic vehicle, the Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) Pladypos, which was developed to addressthese challenges. This vehicle carries high-resolution imaging and remote-sensing tools to produce photomosaics and microbathymetry maps of the seafloor, as well as performing precise geo-referencing.The results were later integrated into a GIS.