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Sarah Parcak, archaeologist and author, delves into her new book "Archeology From Space".
Credit: Rob Clark for National Geographic
What does it take to be an archaeologist from space? No, you do not need a rocket or a space suit. However, lasers are sometimes involved. And infrared cameras. And espionage satellites.
Welcome to the world of Sarah Parcak. Parcak, an archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, has mapped sites around the world from the space. To do this, it uses images captured by satellites – from NASA and private companies – in orbit above the ground.
From these high heights, sensitive instruments can reveal details unseen to ground scientists, marking the location of walls or even entire cities buried for millennia. Parcak explains how the views of space transform the field of archeology into his new book "Archeology of Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past" (Henry Holt and Co., 2019). [Read an excerpt from “Archaeology From Space”]
Satellites analyze landscapes and use different parts of the light spectrum to discover buried remnants of ancient civilizations. But studying the archaeological sites from above had very modest (and not very technical) beginnings, Parkak explained to Live Science. The researchers first experienced the opportunity to look upwards at a historic site more than a century ago, when a member of the Corps of Royal Engineers photographed the Stonehenge monument, old from 5,000 years since a hot air balloon.
"You can even see – from this very early and a little blurry photograph – spots on the landscape around the site, showing that there were buried items there," Parcak said.
During the 1960s and 1970s, aerial photography continued to play an important role in archeology. But when NASA launched its first satellites, it opened "a completely new world" for archaeologists in the 1980s and 1990s, Parkak said.
In fact, the declassified images of the US government's Corona spy satellite program, which ran from 1959 to 1972, helped archaeologists of the 1990s rebuild the sites of important Middle Eastern sites that have since disappeared, destroyed by the United States. urban expansion.
An eye embedded in a tomb dating from 4000 years ago, in Lisht, Egypt. The expedition, jointly led by Mr. Parcak, was conducted in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Parcak
Today, aerial or satellite images captured with the help of optical lenses, thermal imaging cameras, infrared and lidars – light detection and telemetry, laser system type – are well established in the context of of the tool kit of an archaeologist. And archaeologists need as many tools as possible. It is believed that millions of sites around the world remain to be discovered, added Parcak.
But remote sensing is not suitable for everyone; different terrains require different techniques of space archeology. For example, in Egypt, layers of sand covered pyramids and cities. In this type of landscape, high-resolution optical satellites reveal subtle surface differences that can allude to underground structures.
And in areas with dense vegetation, such as in Southeast Asia or Central America, lidar emits millions of pulsations of light that penetrate trees and detect hidden buildings, Parcak said.
In his own work, Parcak 's analysis of satellite views led to the creation of a new map for the legendary city of Tanis in Egypt, which is famous in the movie "The Adventurers of the". Lost Ark ". Tanis' satellite imagery revealed a vast network of buildings in the city, which had never been detected even though the site was being searched, she wrote.
Satellite images of the ancient Egyptian buried city, Tanis, revealed invisible walls for ground-based archaeologists.
Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Parcak
If these stories of space archeology in Parcak's book leave readers wanting more, they are lucky. An online platform called GlobalXplorer, launched and managed by Parcak, provides users with access to a library of satellite images for navigation and annotations.
Grassroots 'science-citizens' can join 'campaigns' to help research lost towns and old structures, and help experts identify traces of looting of sites vulnerable, according to the website of the platform. Since 2017, about 80,000 users have evaluated 14 million satellite images and mapped 700 major archaeological sites until then unknown, Parkak said.
"Archeology From Space" is available for sale on Amazon.
Originally published on Science live.
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