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Remote Sensing the Archaeological Traces of Boat Movement in the Marshes of Southern Mesopotamia

Jotheri, J.; de Gruchy, M.W.; Almaliki, R.; Feadha, M.

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Authors

J. Jotheri

M.W. de Gruchy

R. Almaliki

M. Feadha



Abstract

This study presents the results of the first remote sensing survey of hollow ways in Southern Mesopotamia between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, primarily using the imagery in Google Earth. For archaeologists, hollow ways are important trace fossils of past human movement that inform about how people travelled in the past and what considerations were important to them as they moved through the landscape. In this study, remotely sensed hollow ways were ground-truthed and dated by association with both palaeochannels and known archaeological sites. Contextual and morphological evidence of the hollow ways indicate that they are likely the archaeological manifestation of ethnographically attested “water channels” formed through the dense reeds of marshlands in southern Iraq, not formed by traction overland like other known hollow ways. The map itself documents the first known hollow ways preserved underwater and one of the best-preserved landscapes of past human movement in the Near East.

Citation

Jotheri, J., de Gruchy, M., Almaliki, R., & Feadha, M. (2019). Remote Sensing the Archaeological Traces of Boat Movement in the Marshes of Southern Mesopotamia. Remote Sensing, 11(21), Article 2474. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11212474

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 30, 2019
Online Publication Date Oct 23, 2019
Publication Date Nov 30, 2019
Deposit Date Oct 24, 2019
Publicly Available Date Oct 25, 2019
Journal Remote Sensing
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 21
Article Number 2474
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11212474

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