Relics uncovered: Mayan ruins in Guatemala.
Credit: Tom Sever
If they haven't been destroyed or dismantled, many ancient structures were long ago enveloped by soil, water, sand, volcanic ash, or thick vegetation. Though they might not be obvious to the naked eye, archaeologists are learning how to spot them.
Since the World War I, aerial photography from low-flying aircraft has been widely used. These images can help to pick out relics betrayed by unusual mounds, lines or disjointed landscapes. In other places, buried structures are completely invisible to the naked eye. But they still reveal clues to their whereabouts - just not with visible light.
The human eye can detect wavelengths of light within the range of around 400 to 700 nanometres. But cameras attached to satellites and aircraft are now taking infrared and ultraviolet shots over a much wider range of wavelengths – and revealing some remarkable details about ancient civilisations.
Mayan cities
When NASA's only archaeologist, Tom Sever, looked at an infrared satellite image of a Mayan city in Guatemala, he was intrigued to see the vegetation around the buildings showed up as much brighter than the vegetation in other areas. Following a hunch, Sever, based at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Hunstville, Alabama, looked for other patches of bright vegetation on the U.S. space agency's maps.
Sure enough, he found additional bright spots at sites not previously considered for archaeological digs.
Sever hypothesised that the limestone that the Maya used for building had leached into the soil, altering vegetation at these sites. Since chlorophyll in plants glows brightly in the infrared range, NASA's satellites were able to pick up the subtle difference in vegetation. With this new method in their toolkit, archaeologists went on to discover several previously unknown Mayan cities.
Spotting entire new cities is one thing, but these images can also provide intricate data about already well-known sites.
Payson Sheets, a professor of archaeology at the University of Colorado, has directed the Arenal Research Project in northwestern Costa Rica since the 1980s. He has used similar infrared images from NASA satellites and aircraft to solve a long-standing mystery.
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.