060: Lidar, photogrammetry, GIS & Claude AI to discover archaeological sites in the Pyrenees, Spain
Staff
Fernando Contreras Rodrigo (Lérida. Spain - 1967)
A graduate in History specializing in Classical Archaeology (Autonomous University of Barcelona), he is the Director and Manager of the Sanisera Archaeology Institute, an international organization that has been developing archaeological training courses for over 30 years at the Sanisera archaeological site (Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain). Since 1993, he has also carried out archaeological research, conservation, and heritage management projects in Spain, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. Since 2015, he has led annual excavation and restoration missions for the Government of Dubai. He is the author of more than thirty publications and reports. He is proficient in standard archaeological fieldwork technologies, including ArcGIS, AutoCAD, GPS data capture, drone and total station aerial photography, databases, photogrammetry, and archaeological illustration. He has experience leading multidisciplinary and multicultural teams of up to 25 people, as well as preparing budgets, tenders, grant applications, project proposals, and technical reports. He also designs and develops database software for the management of archaeological heritage, a line of work that he started with his B.O.I.R.A. system (Organizational Base of Information of the Archaeological Register) and which he is now expanding with the support of artificial intelligence.
Adrián Fernández Sánchez (Madrid. Spain - 1990)
Graduated in Geography (2014), he holds a PhD in Climatology and flood hazards, in which he applied GIS and remote sensing as core tools. His career is dedicated to paleoclimate, hydrology, satellite imagery and geoarchaeology.
He has been working for Sanisera since 2018, and nowadays he is also a professor at Complutense University of Madrid, where he teaches Remote Sensing to GIS students. He has participated in many Sanisera campaigns such as Carthage (Tunisia), Dubai over multiple years (UAE), Menorca (Spain) and Saudi Arabia (remotely). In these projects he estimated probabilities and applied satellite images to find new archaeological sites, and he has also performed paleoenvironmental reconstructions at different sites.
As a professor, he has directed several Master's Theses related to LiDAR detection of archaeological remains (Extremadura, Spain), geostatistics for archaeology (Bolomor Site, Spain) and hydraulic models at archaeological sites (Pómac Site, Peru).
Esther Fernández Colomo (Navalcarnero, Madrid. Spain - 2001)
GIS Analyst and Archaeologist with significant experience processing, analysing and mapping geospatial and archaeological data, taking a methodical approach and applying geographic information technologies to the study and documentation of archaeological heritage.
Specialized in Geographic Information Systems at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and trained in drone photogrammetry, and machine learning and artificial intelligence applied to GIS, she focuses her work on remote sensing, digital cartography and LiDAR technology applied to archaeology, using tools such as ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, Python, SQL/PostGIS, Google Earth Engine, AutoCAD and Microstation.
Between October 2025 and February 2026 she worked as a GIS Technician at the Sanisera Archaeology Institute in Dubai, focusing on territorial analysis and geospatial characterisation at the Suhaila (Hatta) and Saruq Al-Hadid sites (Dubai, UAE), producing the project's cartography, spatial analysis and spatial statistics, as well as occasional mapping for the Al Qusais site. This work resulted in three co-authored scientific publications on survey methodology, selective excavation, and metallurgical and ceremonial activity in the region.
