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Historical Aerial Imagery in Jordan and the Wider Middle East

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Archaeology from Historical Aerial and Satellite Archives

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of aerial photographs of Middle Eastern countries have been taken since the beginning of the First World War. The majority has been destroyed, but tens of thousands survive in archives in several countries. Identification of and research on these collections has grown rapidly in recent years. Although the potential value of these ‘historical’ photographs has long been known, the rapid and dramatic development in Middle Eastern countries, affecting archaeological sites and landscapes, has accelerated the need for such records. This chapter surveys the present state of our knowledge of historical archive aerial photography, illustrates its use through specific examples and sets out a programme for increasing access to the ‘archive’ and opening it up to researchers through a web-based collection.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    TNA AIR5/1239 ‘Middle East Monthly Summaries 1921–1924’ reports 14 Squadron was involved in taking photos of archaeological sites for the Palestine Government during January and February 1923.

Abbreviations

 :

Aerial Photos of Israel 1917–1919, University of Haifa Library, Digital Media Center http://digitool.haifa.ac.il/R/PJYB6P3BY5JNLXPARVQK44EA4A2VRGIV5XBCE6EAN6Y2NYGEKE-02684?func=collections-result&collection_id=1280

APAAME:

Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East http://www.flickr.com/photos/APAAME/collections/

HAS:

Hunting Aerial Survey of Jordan, 1953

JADIS:

The Jordanian Archaeological Data Information System (Palumbo 1994).

MEGA-J:

Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities: http://www.megajordan.org/

TNA:

The National Archives, Kew, UK: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Honorary Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, London, SW1W 8NR, UK

    Robert Bewley

  2. Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    David Kennedy

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  1. Robert Bewley
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  2. David Kennedy
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Correspondence to Robert Bewley .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ctr for Aerial Archaeology, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, 1 University Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, United Kingdom

    William S. Hanson

  2. , Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, United Kingdom

    Ioana A. Oltean

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Bewley, R., Kennedy, D. (2013). Historical Aerial Imagery in Jordan and the Wider Middle East. In: Hanson, W., Oltean, I. (eds) Archaeology from Historical Aerial and Satellite Archives. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4505-0_13

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