The aerial photography technology of remote sensing archaeology has promoted a new era of archaeology.

At the beginning of the 20th century, aerial photographs began to be adopted by archaeologists to look at the surface features that are difficult or impossible to identify from the surface height. 1906, an Englishman, Sharp, photographed Stonehenge, a famous prehistoric site, from the plane, and developed the earliest aerial photography technology of aerial archaeology, which is generally considered by academic circles as the beginning of remote sensing archaeology.

"With Sharp's aerial photos as a symbol, the world has ushered in a new era of using aerial photography technology for archaeology." Deng Biao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the development of satellite technology has gradually deepened the application of remote sensing technology in archaeology. 2 1 century, with the high spatial resolution satellites being put into use one after another, remote sensing archaeological technology has become increasingly mature, accepted and recognized by the archaeological community, and has become a necessary means of archaeological investigation and protection planning.

Domestic remote sensing archaeology also started from aerial photography. He said that Sanmenxia Reservoir was built in China in 1960s. In order to understand the translated ground conditions and cultural relics, people discovered some ground sites and tombs through aerial photography, and then began ground archaeology, and conducted excavation and research in time. Since then, space technology has been widely used in large-scale archaeological work such as the archaeology of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum. In recent years, remote sensing archaeological technology has been applied to the protection of cultural heritage and developed into a relatively complete monitoring and management technology system. "Remote sensing archaeology can be roughly divided into three stages: hot air balloon photography, aerial photography and satellite remote sensing." He said to Ao Yun.

Looking back on the development of remote sensing archaeology, the development of natural science and technology can be said to be the most important driving factor. Liu Jianguo, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has been engaged in remote sensing archaeology since 1992. He believes that modern information technology, such as remote sensing, should play an important role in archaeological research. The development and combination of space science, photoelectric technology, geoscience law, mathematical method and computer technology directly promoted the development of remote sensing archaeology.

"The development of remote sensing archaeology is also an inevitable product of social development. The change of the development goal of human society has put forward new tasks and problems for scientific research. When traditional methods and means are not enough to achieve this goal, new methods and fields appear. " He believes that with the change of social development goals and scientific development goals, especially in the context of the increasingly tense relationship between man and nature and between man and environment, people need to conduct cross-regional and long-term research on the historical changes between man and nature, and remote sensing archaeology is just the right time.