Egypt

Sarah Parcak, Content Provider

Lost Egypt Exhibition blog

Dr. Parcak works at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. It’s a little odd to think of an archaeologist doing a lot of “field work” at a computer station, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. One of the tricky things about archaeology is that the people who practice it are often looking for things that are hidden, buried underground for long periods of time (have you ever seen the drawings Napoleon’s team did of the Sphinx buried up to its neck in sand?). Archaeologists used to (and sometimes still do) rely on logic, perseverance, and luck when looking for new sites. They would dig in places where they had deduced that a site should be based upon the available evidence (like the team that discovered the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders), or they would jump on chance discoveries made by the local human or even animal population (like the donkey who accidentally stepped into the graves now known as The Valley of the Golden Mummies). But because of the satellite imaging that is now being done by Dr. Parcak and others, archaeologists are better able to determine exactly where to dig before ever even setting foot there.

- Sarah Parcak Talking About Her Satellite Research
Exchange Magazine Video. In this short talk, TED Fellow Sarah Parcak introduces the field of "space archeology" -- using satellite images to search for clues to the lost sites of past civilizations. Sarah Parcak uses satellite...

- Egyptian Pyramids Found By Infra-red Satellite Images
BBC News (Francis Cronin) Thanks to Brian Donovan for this link. More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings. Initial excavations have already confirmed some...

- Satellites Unearthing Ancient Egyptian Ruins
CNN Sarah Parcak's work with satellite images makes fairly regular appearences in the media. There's nothing really new here, but for those of you who haven't come across her work before the above article provides a good summary. Archaeologists...

- Hiding In Plain View - Identifying Sites From Satellite Photos
POPSCI.com A slideshow demonstrating how Sarah Parcak goes about finding ancient Egyptian sites using satellite photographs. I should warn you that the site was down over the weekend, and when it first came back up I was only able to access the first...

- New Sites In Egypt Spotted From Space
http://www.livescience.com/history/070605_satellite_egypt2.html More on Sarah Parcak's work with satellite images of Egypt: "Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say. Images captured from space...

Egypt