Silchester

Left Today aerial photography is seen as an indispensable archaeological tool, but it was not always so. Here the mid 1st century AD Roman fortlet at Old Burrow, Devon, is positioned to allow a wide vantage over the Bristol Channel. It was photographed on 12 February 2008.

The past from the air: the origins of aerial photography

Today we take it for granted that aerial photographs are an essential tool for understanding the historic environment, but for the pioneers of aerial photography it was a struggle to gain acceptance, as Chris Catling, who has been reading Martyn Barber’s new book, A History of Aerial Photography and Archaeology, now relates.