Analyzing Canarian Archeology Heritage through Hyperspectral lmage Analysis

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging is an emerging technology for the archaeologists’ investigation. In this research work, a multidisciplinary team formed by archaeologists and engineers present a proof of concept on the use of hyperspectral imaging analysis to determine the origin of different obsidian rocks used by the ancient inhabitants. In order to capture the hyperspectral information from Gran Canaria and Tenerife obsidians rocks, an acquisition system based on two hyperspectral cameras coupled to a scanning platform to move them linearly has been developed. Introductory results of applying two different supervised algorithms (Random Forest and Support Vector Machine with two types of kernels: linear kernel and radial basic function kernel) to the hyperspectral database to check the discrimination capabilities between Gran Canaria and Tenerife obsidians rock at different classification levels (island, municipality and deposit).