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Remote Sensing and AI Coupled Approach for Large-Scale Archaeological Mapping in the Andean Arid Highlands: Case Study in Altos Arica, Chile
Open accessAbstract
Artificial intelligence algorithms for automated archaeological site detection have been scarcely applied in the Andean highlands, regions that preserve a significant amount of surface archaeological architecture but have not yet been fully explored or mapped due to the difficult terrain. This paper presents a case study of the application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to automatically identify archaeological architecture in the Azapa valley in the Arica y Parinacota region of Chile. Using a high-resolution and big regional-scale archaeological geodatabase created through a systematic and detailed photo-interpretation survey of satellite imagery and fieldwork, our study demonstrates the efficiency of CNN-based automated detection in identifying archaeological stone structures such as roundhouses and corrals in the Chilean highlands. After outlining the technical protocol for automated detection, we present the results and discuss the potential of our AI model for archaeological mapping in arid highland environments, from a regional to a more extended and global perspective.
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Zhu, L., Zhang, X., Zhao, C., Gao, M., Lyu, H., & Wang, Z. (2026) · Expert Systems with Applications · doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2026.133476
Yang, H., Zou, Q., Hu, Q., Wang, S., Zhao, P., Ai, M., & Li, Y. (2026) · Journal of Field Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00934690.2026.2731301
Metadata
- Authors
- Castiello, M. E., Landauer, J., & Saintenoy, T.
- Affiliations
- Institute d’Archéologie et de Sciences de l’Antiquité, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Landauer Research, 71642 Ludwigsburg, Germany
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Venue
- Remote Sensing
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2025-10-21
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 3499
- ISSN
- 2072-4292 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4415403352
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 2.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Remote Sensing (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeological Research and Protection
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction
- Keywords
- convolutional neural networks, archaeological mapping, Andean highlands, Azapa Valley, roundhouses, corrals, stone structures, satellite imagery, aerial photograph interpretation
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