Hundreds of Roman Empire forts in West Asia revealed in declassified spy satellite pics

In the declassification of an old spy satellite imagery, which included regions of Iraq, Syria and nearby "fertile crescent" territories of the eastern Mediterranean, hundreds of Roman Empire forts reappeared.

The satellites were used in the 1960s and 1970s for reconnaissance, however, their data is now declassified. Some the the archived images, which were captured by those satellites, are now paving the way for fresh archaeology finds in the zones of the Earth which are generally difficult for researchers to visit.

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In the images, the 396 Roman forts were spotted straight from space when the region's aerial survey was carried out in 1934. In this survey, 116 forts were recorded on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire.

Archaeologists still agree with the conclusions drawn in the nearly century-old study, that Rome was trying to fortify its frontier.

"These forts are similar in form to many Roman forts from elsewhere in Europe and North Africa. There are many more forts in our study than elsewhere, but this may be because they are better preserved and easier to recognise," stated lead author Jesse Casana, who is a professor of anthropology focusing on the Middle East at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College, while speaking to Space.com.

"However, it could also have been a real product of intensive fort construction, especially during the second and third centuries AD," he added.

Satellites' clear, precise images - a unique resource for archaeological research

The clear and precise images taken specifically by these satellites are most important for the new study.

"Because these images preserve a high-resolution, stereo perspective on a landscape that has been severely impacted by modern-day land-use changes, including urban expansion, agricultural intensification and reservoir construction, they constitute a unique resource for archaeological research," stated the authors in the work published in Antiquity on Thursday (Oct 25).

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It was the declassification of images which offered rich data for archaeologists, said Casana.

"All the satellite images we used in this study are publicly available through the US Geological Survey, which serve them on their EarthExplorer data distribution portal. Images that are already scanned can be downloaded there for free, while unscanned images can be purchased for $30 USD," he added.

After the images were downloaded, they were processed for hours to spatially correct and georeference the images.

(With inputs from agencies)

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