CultSearcher

CultSearcher

This project develops semi-automatic methods for detecting and mapping some kinds of cultural heritage in Norway.

Oppland County now uses a method from this project for the mapping of ancient deer hunting systems and iron extraction sites.


This ancient deer hunting system, located in Nord-Fron municipality, consists of a number of pitfall traps located in a deer trekking route.

Several Norwegian municipalities are experiencing growing pressure on land for development, being it new residential areas, industry, tourism, or new highways. The traditional mapping of cultural heritage, mainly based on chance discovery and inaccurate positioning, has proven inadequate for land use planning. Therefore, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, in cooperation with some counties and municipalities, are investing in the development of new methods, using new technology, for a more systematic mapping of cultural heritage.

Latest project news

NR Researchers Arnt-Børre Salberg and Øivind Due Trier are now using deep learning for semi-automatic detection of charcoal kilns from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. Preliminary results indicate that this is very effective compared to traditional pattern recognition methods.

With deep learning, 85% of the kilns are detected, with only 10% false positives in addition. With traditional pattern recognition on similar problems, the correct classification rate was lower, and the number of false positives was orders of magnitude higher.

Updated date: Tuesday, March 8, 2016 - 08:33

A previously unknown grave field containing 16 grave mounds has recently been discovered by automatic pattern recognition software developed by the Norwegian Computing Center. Covered by spruce forest, the grave field is impossible to discover from aerial photography.

More...

Updated date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 14:31

In 2009, the project acquired two new Quickbird images of parts of Vestfold County. In one of the images, CultSearcher was able to detect nine circular crop marks that the archaeologists labeled as valid detections. Of these,

Updated date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 03:30

The Norwegian Computing Center has developed automatic detection of pits in airborne laser scanning data. This method is now being used in the mapping of ancient iron extraction sites and hunting systems in Oppland County, Norway.

Updated date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 03:29
Research areas

Project period

2003-2016
Department

Financing

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage