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Aerial photographs have fascinated people since the beginning of aviation. Viewed from the air, new perspectives open up and contexts that are not contexts that cannot be seen on the ground. This also applies to archaeology in particular. But not only preserved monuments and excavations can be documented by aerial photography, but also ground interventions by human hands that are no longer recognisable above ground can be seen under certain constellations, which can usually only be detected from the air. This is the task of aerial archaeology. Since the beginning of the 1980s, aerial flights have been systematically carried out in Germany in order to record previously unknown archaeological monuments and thus protect them from uncontrolled destruction by construction measures.

The advent of remote-controlled multicopters and drones at the beginning of this century made the dream of flying come true even for non-pilots. These can be used to create impressive aerial photographs. This page now deals with the use of these multicopters in the field of archaeology, especially in Bavaria. Little by little, information on the technology and equipment of multicopters, on the legal framework, on possible areas of application and on the training of so-called crop marks will be compiled. Of course, many example images are also available.

The English version of this website was translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version). The author welcomes any suggestions for improvement.

News

29.10.2023 In my public lecture "The Use of Thermography by Means of Multicopters - First Experiences and Results" I present a first interim balance of the current thermography project of the AVE (Archäologischer Verein Erding e.V.). I show the first, mostly sensational and not yet published aerial images from this year and try to explain the successes shown and their causes.
03.07.2023 The report "Mit dem Luftbildarchäologen auf der Jagd" ("On the hunt with the aerial archaeologist") was already broadcast on 02.07.2023 in the magazine "Schwaben und Altbayern" on Bavarian television. However, the report about my voluntary work in aerial archaeology can still be accessed via the ARD media library.
26.02.2023  The extremely dry autumn and winter of 2022/2023 lead to the development of crop marks, especially in winter wheat, as early as February, which otherwise only occur at the end of April. Some sample photos from the year 2023 can be accessed via the gallery page.
08.01.2023 Since the end of August 2022, I have been working on the topic of "Thermography in voluntary aerial archaeology" as part of a project funded by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (Bayerischen Landesamt für Denkmalpflege). I document first experiences and examples on a separate project page.
15.08.2022 This year, for the first time, I have taken advantage of the additional possibilities of waypoint flying and have compiled some information about it on a new page.