'COMFORT Online Lectures' presents:

Jürgen Landauer, Giacomo Fontana,

Simon Maddison, Axel G. Posluschny 

‘Archaeological Site Detection: Latest Results from a Deep Learning Based Europe Wide Hillfort Search’

22 July 2025, 15:00-16:30h (CEST)

(= CET: 14:00h // UTC: 13:00h)

Access link:

https://rgzm-de.zoom.us/j/89714897194?pwd=oJWlbaVbYWdFV5vlM1zaG9cIeYyn4n.1

The increasing availability and resolution of LiDAR data are revolutionizing landscape archaeology, enabling unprecedented large-scale studies. However, the time-intensive nature of manual analysis has posed significant challenges. This research tackles the complexities of large-scale archaeological site detection by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with LiDAR data, focusing on hillforts across diverse European landscapes. A semi-automated workflow employing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) was developed and tested across three regions – England, Hesse (Germany), and Molise (Italy) – covering a total area of 180,000 km².

The methodology utilized the 'Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland' data to train a CNN on LiDAR datasets and tested the model's transferability to Germany and Italy. Techniques such as pseudo-labeling and Fine-tuning addressed the „Model Drift“ problem, improving region-specific performance. The AI classifier achieved F1 scores ranging from 34-38%, demonstrating its adaptability to diverse landscapes, including the Mediterranean terrain of Molise and Hesse's densely forested regions. Case studies identified new potential hillforts in England and promising candidates in Hesse and Molise, underscoring the effectiveness of the approach.

see also:  Landauer et. al. 2025: Archaeological Site Detection: Latest Results from a Deep Learning Based Europe Wide Hillfort Search. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 8 (1): 42-58 // DOI:10.5334/jcaa.178

authors:

Jürgen Landauer, Landauer Research, Vice Chairman of CAA Germany

Giacomo Fontana, Director of Digital Archaeology Research and Exploration Lab, Texas Tech Univ.

Simon Maddison, University College London, UK

Axel G. Posluschny, Keltenwelt am Glauberg, Glauburg, Germany