Page 42 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(2) (2025)

preučevanju topografsko izrazitih naselij v agropastoralnih kraških krajih. ALS-interpretacije posame-
znih najdišč so bile dane na voljo strokovnjakom, da bi olajšale nadaljnjo razpravo o suhozidnih krajih
arhipelaga nasploh in o gradiščih posebej.
Ključne besede: ALS, Cres/Lošinj, gradišča, suhozidi, agropastoralni ostanki

Introduction lution of 1 m is provided. This nationwide data
he Cres/Lošinj archipelago is home to offers a fresh perspective also on the islands of
the remains of numerous topographi- Cres-Lošinj archipelago.
Tcally prominent settlements, hillforts This paper addresses the following research
and different types of agro-pastoral enclosures. question: How might new technologies change
42 These are concealed not only by vegetation, our view, compared to previous studies, of hill-
but also by evidence of more recent human ac- forts on the islands of Cres and Lošinj? To an-
tivity, such as agriculture and military instal- swer this question, we systematically examined
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 13 (2025), številka 2 / volume 13 (2025), number 2
lations. They have been the subject of limited 500 km² of ALS-generated terrain models of
research since their first mention in scientific the archipelago for traces of hillforts and subse-
publications over 100 years ago. This research quently compared our results with the current
has been primarily concerned with locating state of research. Due to the size of the study
prehistoric dry stone fortification walls visible area, archaeological interpretation has focused
to the naked eye. Given the karst topography, on hillforts, with the mapping of prehistoric
dense ground vegetation and limited visibility burial mounds being left aside.
of archaeological remains, not to mention the Methodologically, this study is part of a
lack of technical resources available, research- consistent archaeological approach involving
ing hillforts was highly challenging. Howev- large-scale prospection for the study of the histo-
er, this situation has changed slightly because ry of the archipelago. The current project, Osor
of advances in airborne laser scanning technol- beyond the myth, examines the role of Osor in
ogy (ALS or LiDAR). It is currently the only maritime routes and Roman urban architecture
successful method available for identifying the within the city walls, as well as the city’s land-
remains of dry stone walls and fortifications in scape context and land use patterns. The use of
areas covered by dense vegetation. This is pri- large-scale prospection has therefore also bene-
marily because ALS is a remote sensing tech- fited research into hillfort settlements.
nique that is not subject to the same rigorous Having introduced the case study area and the
limitations as other prospection methods, en- current state of research, we will present the
abling the exploration of areas that would oth- methodology employed to identify and map
erwise be inaccessible. The limited use of ALS relevant archaeological remains. The follow-
in recent years is due to the fact that, prior to ing discussion provides a comparison of the
2024, such investigations in Croatia could only new results with those of earlier archaeolog-
be carried out using project data (e.g. Tončinić ical research. Finally, it examines the poten-
et al. 2023; Popović et al. 2021; Doneus et al. tial of archaeological remote sensing for stud-
2015). However, this situation is set to change ying topographically prominent settlements in
after 2024, as a complete ALS survey of Croatia agro-pastoral karst landscapes. To this end, it is
has recently been made publicly available upon necessary to address the fact that the dry stone
request. As part of the ‘Multisensor Aerial Sur- wall enclosures visible in the ALS data are not
vey of the Republic of Croatia’ project, a digital necessarily equivalent to the (prehistoric) hill-
terrain model (DTM) with a grid width reso- top settlements.