Relics uncovered: Mayan ruins in Guatemala.
Credit: Tom Sever
Major expense
Over the last 20 years or so, these multi-spectral images from satellites and aircraft have revealed intricate details and hidden treasures from many more ancient cultures. "I can not imagine doing regional archaeology without good imagery from aircraft and satellites now," said Sheets.
Unfortunately though, this data can be prohibitively expensive. Images from NASA, or from commercial satellites like DigitalGlobe's QuickBird or GeoEye's IKONOS, can cost tens of thousands of dollars each.
In 2005 the Internet search company Google launched its virtual globe – Google Earth – constructed from satellite images and aerial photography. The program quickly caught on with millions of users around the world keen to zoom in on their houses, their dream holiday destinations, and even unintentional pictures of boats and planes.
But then, as the story goes, an Italian computer programmer, Luca Mori, turned its use to archaeology. Using Google Earth, he found signs of a Roman villa buried beneath a riverbed. He contacted experts, who decided to excavate.
American archaeologist Scott Madry, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, stumbled across a newspaper covering Mori's story. Madry had been professionally surveying archaeological sites for more than 25 years, becoming frustrated with the inefficient, dangerous and somewhat inaccurate method of aerial surveying.
Google it
Within a few hours on Google Earth, Madry was able to locate 101 features in an area covering 1,440 square kilometres in Central France. These features represented Iron Age, Medieval and Gallo-Roman sites.
"I have found a very large number of sites using Google Earth from my office here in the U.S.. I was quite surprised at this, and have now given many different short courses in the U.S. and Europe for archaeologists on how to use Google Earth in their work," Madry said.
"Now, with the commercial ultra-high resolution satellite imagery and especially with Google Earth, archaeologists can conduct regional site surveys from their own offices," Madry said. "This is something we would have only dreamed of before."
All of this does make you wonder: what will happen to the quintessential, khaki-clad archaeologist pictured in countless movies and novels? Will popular culture embrace a relic hunter who looks more like Bill Gates than Harrison Ford or Angelina Jolie? At the rate technology is improving, it won't be long before we find out.
Jacqui Hayes is a freelance science writer in Sydney, Australia
Where are the links?
How can you post a story like this without and really links to google maps?
YUCK!
How can you post a comment
How can you post a comment like that?
AND REALLY !
hahaha
hahahaha
(Extra ha for emphasis.)
Check out the examples in
Check out the examples in http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/gis/ge/
The story is about google
The story is about google earth. Not google maps ! duh
kmz.links works in GE
Yes they're using GE but the authors can certainly upload a few .kmz files for us to check out.
The story is about neither
The story is about neither Google Maps nor Google Earth; it is about how satelite imagery has benefitted archaeological investigations. Google Earth, brief coverage of which appears in the article's closing, is merely presented as the current penultimate development on that path. doh!
Really? The penultimate
Really? The penultimate development? I thought it was presented as the final development - not the one before the final.... I must have missed something....
I think the closing
I think the closing paragraph of this article is cheesy and misleading. Archaeologists have never been like Indiana Jones, even back in the day. Come on. And asking if we're "ready for archaeologists who are more like Bill Gates" pigeonholes everybody who's used Google Earth to do more than waste time into the bogus category "People who are like Bill Gates".
Just who the heck is "like Bill Gates"?? This article demonstrates that people who use Google Earth and have a trained eye can discover ancient civilizations. That is amazing. It definitely does not demonstrate that people who make famous software can discover ancient civilizations. I thought we were past the point where people who can use computers get clumped into a category with Bill Gates. Sheesh.
Apart from that, this is a pretty cool way to find ancient ruins and whatnot. Whoever it was that decided to make a public and easily accessible database of aerial photos of everything on Earth, is a true visionary... and is perhaps Bill Gates or somebody like him.
Closing
If you re-read the last paragraph, you would find that not only is your direct quote wrong, so is your entire irate rant. The article says, "Will popular culture embrace a relic hunter who looks more like Bill Gates than Harrison Ford or Angelina Jolie?" The operative phrase there is "looks like", not, as you claim, "are like". Please read a bit more carefully before climbing onto that high horse again.