Move over Indiana Jones, space-age archaeology has arrived. In the past, archaeologists had just maps and trowels to navigate a massive site, but modern imaging technology is helping archeologists to be more selective—from above. Research teams are taking infrared images using satellites orbiting 700 km above the Earth’s surface, equipped with cameras powerful enough to pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter. In Egypt alone, these high-resolution images have so far located 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements—all buried beneath the Earth—by revealing changes in material densities. Ancient Egyptians built with mud bricks, which are denser than natural soil and so they show up clearly in infrared images—almost like footprints. Traditional fieldwork and excavation are still essential for confirmation, though. A pioneer of this technique, US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak,commented that her team “excavated a 3,000-year-old house that the satellite imagery had shown, and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly. That was real validation of the technology.” This imaging technology has incredible potential, not only for discovery but also for giving archaeologists a sense of size, distribution, and complexity.
