From the New York Times:

Archaeologists around the world, who have long relied on the classic tools of their profession, like the trowel and the plumb bob, are now turning to the modern technology of drones to defend and explore endangered sites. And perhaps nowhere is the shift happening as swiftly as in Peru, where Dr. Castillo has created a drone air force to map, monitor and safeguard his country’s ancient treasures. Drones mark “a before and after in archaeology,” said Dr. Castillo, who is also a prominent archaeologist and one of a dozen experts who will outline the use of drones at a conference in San Francisco next year. […] In the Middle East, researchers have employed them to guard against looting. “Aerial survey at the site is allowing for the identification of new looting pits and determinations of whether any of the looters’ holes had been revisited,” said Morag Kersel, an archaeologist from DePaul University in Chicago who is part of a team using drones in Jordan and Israel. […] Though his work is focused on the deep past, Dr. Castillo is fascinated by gadgets and new technology. He began experimenting with drones about two years ago, buying a $100 one from the Sharper Image. Now he has a squadron of eight, all miniature helicopters that cost about $1,500 to $20,000. He hopes to soon add 20 more. The drones, he said, “solve the first riddle of archaeology.” “Finally you can fly whenever you want to, wherever you want to, in any angle, for anything you want and get the great picture you always thought you should take,” he said.

The full story focuses mostly on the use of drones in Peru. Aren Maeir recently posted a video showing a drone in use in his excavations of the Philistine city of Gath.

From the Jerusalem Post:

We’re all familiar with the kinds of archaeological research seen in movies and television — digging the earth, brushing the dust away, and examining artifacts up close. But these days, we can learn even more about ancient artifacts by combining traditional archaeology with cutting-edge technology.
At the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, researchers were curious to know more about a type of storage container that began appearing around the late 10th or early 9th century BCE. Due to their large swollen bodies, they are dubbed ‘Hippo’ jars.
To probe the deep secrets of these ancient jars, the researchers — Prof. Amihai Mazar, Prof. Uzy Smilansky, and Dr. Avshalom Karasik — went beyond traditional techniques by conducting a series of scans with 3D scanners and advanced computation.
[…]
The Hebrew University researchers measured 158 Hippo jars with a high resolution 3D scanner at the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory, which is directed by Dr. Leore Grosman. (The laboratory is a joint initiative of the Hebrew University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Weizmann Institute of Science, with the University of Haifa serving as a collaborating partner.)
Equipped with modern, high precision scanners, the lab created detailed three-dimensional models of the ‘Hippo’ jars.
These digital models provided precise measurements of the jars’ shape, which was later correlated with independent features, such as the source of the clay used to make them, the potters’ marks, and the jars’ distribution. They also provided information on the jars’ capacity, volume, height and maximal diameter.
What did the researchers learn from the 3D scans?

The article continues here. This is the first in a new column written by students at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology.