For the past several years, Jesse Casana and his colleagues have been flying drones equipped with a thermal imaging camera over a dozen sites from New Hampshire to Cyprus. The equipment uses heat to differentiate stone and brick structures from surrounding soil.

But instead of a trowel and shovel, Casana and his Dartmouth College colleague Chad Hill are using a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera and mapping instruments. The camera can identify remnants of buildings and other structures up to several feet below the surface, since the temperatures of that brick or stone material is often warmer than the soil around it. And by using the drone, the researchers can survey an area in minutes that might take months with traditional methods.