Spying on the Past: Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs and Near Eastern Landscapes

Abstract

While attempting to document Soviet nuclear capacities, the first generation of American intelligence satellites also captured vivid images of archaeological sites and landscapes across the Near East. Since their declassification, archaeologists have eagerly exploited them to investigate early cities, trackways, and irrigation systems. In many cases, forty years of development and modernization has damaged or destroyed these sites and features, leaving the satellite photographs as the best surviving record. This paper reviews case studies from Syria, Iraq, and Iran.