Abstract
AIR photography has ceased to be a novelty or a toy, when the Ordnance Survey Office issues a ‘professional paper’ for the instruction of archaeologists in the reading of air-photographs, with hints for airmen also, on the making of such photographs of ancient sites. For ‘shadow-sites’, recorded with the very oblique light of dawn or evening, need different treatment, and yield different results, from bare soil and rocks, best avoided at any time, and from ‘crop-sites’ where the growth varies as ancient walls or ditches present either more or less than normal soil or moisture. How striking these variations may be, appears from these admirable photographs, despite the elimination of colour-contrast. In Nature, they may often be detected by pedestrians; and, as is noted on p. 4, this method of archaeological survey goes back some way—even further than is stated, for in the reference to Northfield Farm 1904 should be 1894, and the significance of weeds among the corn was suggested by even earlier experience among the tomb - robbing peasantry of Cyprus. There the contrast was enhanced by the effects of parching, such as is described on p. 5: and it may be noted that Mr. Crawford's hopes of “another dry year” were realised in the summer of 1929. Soon, it is hinted, we shall find the normal rotation of crops interrupted by archaeological insistence on horsebeans, which have long enough roots to register deep-seated antiquity.
Ordnance Survey Professional Papers.
New Series, No. 12: Air Photography for Archaeologists. By O. G. S. Crawford. Published by Order of the Director-General, Ordnance Survey, under the Authority of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Pp. 44 + 19 plates. (London: H.M.S.O.; Southampton: Ordnance Survey Office, 1929.) 4s. 6d. net.
Enjoying our latest content?
Log in or create an account to continue
- Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team
- Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research
or
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
M., J. Ordnance Survey Professional Papers . Nature 127, 122 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127122a0
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127122a0
This article is cited by
-
Probleme der Epidemiologie
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten (1934)
