Digital surface models of crops used in archaeological feature detection – a case study of Late Neolithic site Tomašanci-Dubrava in Eastern Croatia

This paper presents the results of a study on the neolithic landscape of the Sopot culture in the area of Đakovština in Eastern Slavonija. A vast network of settlements was uncovered using aerial archaeology, which was further confirmed and chronologically determined by magnetometry, excavations, and field surveys. The study focuses on the site Tomašanci-Dubrava, where a drone was used to acquire vertical photographs to capture a detailed orthophoto of the feature in a maturing crop. The captured data revealed the subsurface archaeological features that affect the rate of plant growth, as observed on detailed digital surface models. The implications of this observation are discussed in the paper, including its potential use on a larger level with ALS data or aerial photographs taken by the state geodesic service to create DSM models of wider areas.