Blog #11

Satellites unearthing ancient Egyptian ruins

By Cameron Tankersley

Satellites are being used to help find ancient Egyptian ruins. The satellites are said to "peer into the past from the distance of space." Archaeologists are using photos from the past decade that are the only ones clear enough to help find the ruins, some that are the size of most living rooms. Most of the ruins are in remote places that are not easy to get to. A archaeologist by the name of Sarah Parcak found that 132 sites that were suggested to have ruins by the pictures did in fact have ruins. 83 of the sites that Parcak visited had not been found or recorded by any other archaeologists. She has found hundreds of sites over the past two years and is expecting to find many more in the years to come. The government has restricted excavation in a few unsafe areas. Parcak and her team have noticed how after a place was conquered by another they just built over the existing buildings to make it their own. I think that it is really interesting how we can find and examine the ruins just by satellite pictures. Also I think that its interesting that we can depict who built and conquered places at what times without having someone that was there to tell us.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/23/satellites.archaeology.egypt/index.html