Aerial Photography Questions

A)    The photograph would have been taken during the spring or summer time, as this is when the soil will be driest making the marks show much more clearly. It is also likely that the photo would have been taken in the early morning or late afternoon as this makes the crop cast a large shadow revealing archaeological sites beneath the soil.

B)     This type of photograph is a monochrome oblique photo, as it was taken from an angle which is need to show crop marks and is in black an white which some archaeologists feel is a better and easier way to discover sites.

C)    The marks show up clearly because the picture was probably taken in a particularly dry summer, droughts usually make it easier to see crop marks as it makes under nourished crops very light in colour. The walls beneath the soil may be very deep therefore giving the crops very little moisture to grow therefore they are much smaller than other crops so they show up as very

     light compared to the surrounding crops.

D)    It is important for sites like this one to be recorded from the air at regular intervals as the time of year and day can change the appearance of the crop. This means that each photograph might reveal something different. Taking aerial photographs all year round will show crop marks during spring and summer, soil marks during autumn and shadow marks can be enhanced by a dusting of snow in winter. This gives archaeologists a wide range of evidence to consider when deciding to excavate the site and may make the excavation more accurate due to the vast amount of evidence.

E)     To some extent the photograph does support the plan as they have similar shape making them possible matches. However the two pieces of evidence do not match as the porches are not shown on the photograph as the crop marks show a straight wall rather than the porches on the plan. Although the plan and the photograph are not the same the plan does give us some indication of what the structure underneath the soil may have been there. Despite the fact that they don’t appear to be matches there is a small chance that Source A (ii) could be the plan of the building shown in the photograph because aerial photographs do not always clearly show the crop marks which have the right outline of the walls under the crops.