0:00:01.007,0:00:03.142
When I was a child growing up in Maine,

0:00:03.166,0:00:05.166
one of my favorite things to do

0:00:05.190,0:00:08.214
was to look for sand dollars[br]on the seashores of Maine,

0:00:08.238,0:00:10.944
because my parents told me[br]it would bring me luck.

0:00:10.968,0:00:13.646
But you know, these shells,[br]they're hard to find.

0:00:13.670,0:00:16.166
They're covered in sand,[br]they're difficult to see.

0:00:16.729,0:00:20.173
However, over time,[br]I got used to looking for them.

0:00:20.197,0:00:21.800
I started seeing shapes

0:00:21.824,0:00:24.546
and patterns that helped me[br]to collect them.

0:00:25.855,0:00:29.156
This grew into a passion[br]for finding things,

0:00:29.180,0:00:31.220
a love for the past and archaeology.

0:00:31.545,0:00:34.854
And eventually, when I started[br]studying Egyptology,

0:00:34.878,0:00:39.267
I realized that seeing[br]with my naked eyes alone wasn't enough.

0:00:39.291,0:00:42.140
Because all of the sudden, in Egypt,

0:00:42.164,0:00:45.759
my beach had grown[br]from a tiny beach in Maine

0:00:45.783,0:00:47.870
to one eight hundred miles long,

0:00:47.894,0:00:49.044
next to the Nile.

0:00:49.469,0:00:53.199
And my sand dollars had grown[br]to the size of cities.

0:00:54.254,0:00:57.373
This is really what brought me[br]to using satellite imagery.

0:00:57.397,0:01:01.427
For trying to map the past,[br]I knew that I had to see differently.

0:01:01.880,0:01:05.238
So I want to show you an example[br]of how we see differently

0:01:05.262,0:01:06.506
using the infrared.

0:01:06.903,0:01:09.856
This is a site located[br]in the eastern Egyptian delta

0:01:09.880,0:01:11.077
called Mendes.

0:01:11.101,0:01:14.077
And the site visibly appears brown,

0:01:14.101,0:01:16.307
but when we use the infrared

0:01:16.331,0:01:18.981
and we process it, all of the sudden,

0:01:19.005,0:01:20.521
using false color,

0:01:20.545,0:01:22.331
the site appears as bright pink.

0:01:22.664,0:01:24.076
What you are seeing

0:01:24.100,0:01:27.401
are the actual chemical changes[br]to the landscape

0:01:27.425,0:01:30.917
caused by the building[br]materials and activities

0:01:30.941,0:01:32.306
of the ancient Egyptians.

0:01:33.385,0:01:35.496
What I want to share with you today

0:01:35.520,0:01:38.321
is how we've used satellite data

0:01:38.345,0:01:40.800
to find an ancient Egyptian city,

0:01:40.824,0:01:42.442
called Itjtawy,

0:01:42.466,0:01:44.197
missing for thousands of years.

0:01:44.705,0:01:47.776
Itjtawy was ancient Egypt's capital

0:01:47.800,0:01:49.323
for over four hundred years,

0:01:49.347,0:01:51.665
at a period of time[br]called the Middle Kingdom,

0:01:51.689,0:01:53.283
about four thousand years ago.

0:01:53.624,0:01:56.529
The site is located[br]in the Faiyum of Egypt,

0:01:56.553,0:01:58.152
and the site is really important,

0:01:58.176,0:02:01.174
because in the Middle Kingdom[br]there was this great renaissance

0:02:01.198,0:02:04.069
for ancient Egyptian art,[br]architecture and religion.

0:02:04.784,0:02:07.537
Egyptologists have always known[br]the site of Itjtawy

0:02:07.561,0:02:11.991
was located somewhere near the pyramids[br]of the two kings who built it,

0:02:12.015,0:02:14.529
indicated within the red circles here,

0:02:14.553,0:02:16.847
but somewhere within[br]this massive flood plain.

0:02:16.871,0:02:18.155
This area is huge --

0:02:18.179,0:02:20.773
it's four miles by three miles in size.

0:02:21.299,0:02:24.148
The Nile used to flow[br]right next to the city of Itjtawy,

0:02:24.172,0:02:27.585
and as it shifted and changed[br]and moved over time to the east,

0:02:27.609,0:02:29.069
it covered over the city.

0:02:29.466,0:02:33.307
So, how do you find a buried city

0:02:33.331,0:02:34.735
in a vast landscape?

0:02:35.473,0:02:37.934
Finding it randomly[br]would be the equivalent

0:02:37.958,0:02:39.656
of locating a needle in a haystack,

0:02:39.680,0:02:41.530
blindfolded, wearing baseball mitts.

0:02:41.554,0:02:42.782
(Laughter)

0:02:42.806,0:02:46.068
So what we did is[br]we used NASA topography data

0:02:46.092,0:02:48.853
to map out the landscape,[br]very subtle changes.

0:02:49.218,0:02:52.242
We started to be able to see[br]where the Nile used to flow.

0:02:52.933,0:02:55.718
But you can see in more detail,[br]and even more interesting,

0:02:55.742,0:02:57.789
this very slight raised area

0:02:57.813,0:02:59.250
seen within the circle up here

0:02:59.274,0:03:02.693
which we thought could possibly be[br]the location of the city of Itjtawy.

0:03:03.233,0:03:06.248
So we collaborated[br]with Egyptian scientists

0:03:06.272,0:03:08.398
to do coring work, which you see here.

0:03:08.422,0:03:10.590
When I say coring, it's like ice coring,

0:03:10.614,0:03:12.549
but instead of layers of climate change,

0:03:12.573,0:03:14.905
you're looking for layers[br]of human occupation.

0:03:14.929,0:03:16.666
And, five meters down,

0:03:16.690,0:03:18.817
underneath a thick layer of mud,

0:03:18.841,0:03:22.269
we found a dense layer of pottery.

0:03:22.293,0:03:25.167
What this shows is that[br]at this possible location of Itjtawy,

0:03:25.191,0:03:26.428
five meters down,

0:03:26.452,0:03:29.277
we have a layer of occupation[br]for several hundred years,

0:03:29.301,0:03:30.698
dating to the Middle Kingdom,

0:03:30.722,0:03:33.681
dating to the exact period of time[br]we think Itjtawy is.

0:03:34.126,0:03:36.714
We also found work stone --

0:03:36.738,0:03:38.872
carnelian, quartz and agate

0:03:38.896,0:03:41.333
that shows that there was[br]a jeweler's workshop here.

0:03:41.357,0:03:42.842
These might not look like much,

0:03:42.866,0:03:45.515
but when you think[br]about the most common stones

0:03:45.539,0:03:48.909
used in jewelry from the Middle Kingdom,

0:03:48.933,0:03:50.718
these are the stones that were used.

0:03:50.742,0:03:52.926
So, we have a dense layer of occupation

0:03:52.950,0:03:54.951
dating to the Middle Kingdom at this site.

0:03:54.975,0:03:57.776
We also have evidence[br]of an elite jeweler's workshop,

0:03:57.800,0:04:01.530
showing that whatever was there[br]was a very important city.

0:04:01.554,0:04:03.474
No Itjtawy was here yet,

0:04:03.498,0:04:05.499
but we're going to be[br]returning to the site

0:04:05.523,0:04:07.577
in the near future to map it out.

0:04:07.601,0:04:09.252
And even more importantly,

0:04:09.276,0:04:13.799
we have funding to train young Egyptians[br]in the use of satellite technology

0:04:13.823,0:04:16.759
so they can be the ones[br]making great discoveries as well.

0:04:17.524,0:04:22.362
So I wanted to end with my favorite quote[br]from the Middle Kingdom --

0:04:22.386,0:04:24.927
it was probably written[br]at the city of Itjtawy

0:04:24.951,0:04:26.623
four thousand years ago.

0:04:27.419,0:04:29.894
"Sharing knowledge[br]is the greatest of all callings.

0:04:29.918,0:04:31.681
There's nothing like it in the land."

0:04:31.705,0:04:37.189
So as it turns out,[br]TED was not founded in 1984 AD.

0:04:37.213,0:04:39.308
(Laughter)

0:04:40.109,0:04:45.863
Making ideas actually started in 1984 BC

0:04:45.887,0:04:49.141
at a not-lost-for-long city,[br]found from above.

0:04:49.165,0:04:52.999
It certainly puts finding seashells[br]by the seashore in perspective.

0:04:53.023,0:04:54.175
Thank you very much.

0:04:54.199,0:04:56.629
(Applause)

0:04:56.653,0:04:57.810
Thank you.

0:04:57.834,0:04:59.873
(Applause)