Archaeology from space
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0:00 - 0:03When I was a child growing up in Maine,
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0:03 - 0:05one of my favorite things to do
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0:05 - 0:08was to look for sand dollars on the seashores of Maine,
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0:08 - 0:11because my parents told me it would bring me luck.
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0:11 - 0:14But you know, these shells, they're hard to find.
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0:14 - 0:16They're covered in sand. They're difficult to see.
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0:16 - 0:20However, overtime, I got used to looking for them.
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0:20 - 0:22I started seeing shapes
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0:22 - 0:25and patterns that helped me to collect them.
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0:25 - 0:29This grew into a passion for finding things,
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0:29 - 0:32a love for the past and archaeology.
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0:32 - 0:35And eventually when I started studying Egyptology,
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0:35 - 0:39I realized that seeing with my naked eyes alone wasn't enough.
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0:39 - 0:42Because all of the sudden in Egypt
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0:42 - 0:46my beach had grown from a tiny beach in Maine
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0:46 - 0:48to one eight hundred miles long
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0:48 - 0:50next to the Nile,
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0:50 - 0:52and my sand dollars had grown
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0:52 - 0:54to the size of cities.
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0:54 - 0:57This is really what brought me to using satellite imagery.
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0:57 - 1:01For trying to map the past, I knew that I had to see differently.
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1:01 - 1:05So I want to show you an example of how we see differently
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1:05 - 1:07using the infrared.
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1:07 - 1:10This is a site located in the eastern Egyptian delta
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1:10 - 1:11called Mendes.
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1:11 - 1:14And the site visibly appears brown,
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1:14 - 1:16but when we use the infrared
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1:16 - 1:20and we process it, all of the sudden, using false color,
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1:20 - 1:23the site appears as bright pink.
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1:23 - 1:24What you are seeing
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1:24 - 1:27are the actual chemical changes to the landscape
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1:27 - 1:31caused by the building materials and activities
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1:31 - 1:33of the ancient Egyptians.
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1:33 - 1:35What I want to share with you today
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1:35 - 1:38is how we've used satellite data
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1:38 - 1:41to find an ancient Egyptian city,
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1:41 - 1:42called Itjtawy,
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1:42 - 1:45missing for thousands of years.
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1:45 - 1:48Itjtawy was ancient Egypt's capital
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1:48 - 1:50for over four hundred years,
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1:50 - 1:52at a period of time called the Middle Kingdom
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1:52 - 1:54about four thousand years ago.
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1:54 - 1:56The site is located in the Faiyum of Egypt
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1:56 - 1:59and site is really important because in the Middle Kingdom
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1:59 - 2:02there was this great renaissance for ancient Egyptian art,
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2:02 - 2:04architecture and religion.
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2:04 - 2:07Egyptologists have always known the site of Itjtawy
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2:07 - 2:10was located somewhere near the pyramids
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2:10 - 2:14of the two kings who built it, indicated within the red circles here,
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2:14 - 2:17but somewhere within this massive flood plane.
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2:17 - 2:18This area is huge --
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2:18 - 2:21it's four miles by three miles in size.
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2:21 - 2:24The Nile used to flow right next to the city of Itjtawy,
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2:24 - 2:28and as it shifted and changed and moved over time to the east,
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2:28 - 2:30it covered over the city.
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2:30 - 2:33So, how do you find a buried city
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2:33 - 2:35in a vast landscape?
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2:35 - 2:38Finding it randomly would be the equivalent
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2:38 - 2:40of locating a needle in a haystack,
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2:40 - 2:42blindfolded wearing baseball mitts.
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2:42 - 2:46So what we did is we used NASA topography data
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2:46 - 2:49to map out the landscape, very subtle changes.
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2:49 - 2:52We started to be able to see where the Nile used to flow.
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2:52 - 2:56But you can see in more detail -- and even more interesting --
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2:56 - 2:58this very slight raised area
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2:58 - 3:01seen within the circle up here, which we thought could possibly be
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3:01 - 3:03the location of the city of Itjtawy.
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3:03 - 3:06So we collaborated with the Egyptian scientists
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3:06 - 3:08to do coring work, which you see here.
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3:08 - 3:11When I say coring, it's like ice coring, but instead of
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3:11 - 3:15layers of climate change you're looking for layers of human occupation.
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3:15 - 3:16And five meters down,
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3:16 - 3:19underneath a thick layer of mud,
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3:19 - 3:22we found a dense layer of pottery.
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3:22 - 3:25What this shows is that at this possible location
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3:25 - 3:26of Itjtawy, five meters down,
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3:26 - 3:29we have of layer of occupation for several hundred years
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3:29 - 3:32dating to the Middle Kingdom, dating to the exact period of time
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3:32 - 3:34we think Itjtawy is.
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3:34 - 3:37We also found work stone --
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3:37 - 3:39carnelian, quartz and agate that shows
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3:39 - 3:41that there was a jewelers workshop here.
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3:41 - 3:43These might not look like much,
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3:43 - 3:45but when you think about the most common stones
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3:45 - 3:48used in jewelry from the Middle Kingdom,
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3:48 - 3:50these are the stones that were used.
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3:50 - 3:53So, we have a dense layer of occupation
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3:53 - 3:55dating to the Middle Kingdom at this site.
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3:55 - 3:58We also have evidence of an elite jewelers workshop,
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3:58 - 4:01showing that whatever was there was a very important city.
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4:01 - 4:03No Itjtawy was here yet,
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4:03 - 4:05but we're going to be returning to the site
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4:05 - 4:07in the near future to map it out.
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4:07 - 4:09And even more importantly,
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4:09 - 4:12we have funding to train young Egyptians
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4:12 - 4:14in the use of satellite technology
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4:14 - 4:18so they can be the ones making great discoveries as well.
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4:18 - 4:21So I wanted to end with my favorite quote
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4:21 - 4:22from the Middle Kingdom --
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4:22 - 4:27it was probably written at the city of Itjtawy four thousand years ago.
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4:27 - 4:30"Sharing knowledge is the greatest of all callings.
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4:30 - 4:32There's nothing like it in the land."
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4:32 - 4:38So as it turns out, TED was not founded in 1984 AD.
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4:38 - 4:40(Laughter)
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4:40 - 4:46Making ideas actually started in 1984 BC
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4:46 - 4:49at a not-lost-for-long city, found from above.
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4:49 - 4:53It certainly puts finding seashells by the seashore in perspective.
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4:53 - 4:55Thank you very much.
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4:55 - 4:57(Applause)
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4:57 - 4:58Thank you.
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4:58 - 4:59(Applause)
- Title:
- Archaeology from space
- Speaker:
- Sarah Parcak
- Description:
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In this short talk, TED Fellow Sarah Parcak introduces the field of "space archeology" -- using satellite images to search for clues to the lost sites of past civilizations.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 05:20
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Judith Matz commented on English subtitles for Archeology from space | ||
Darren Bridenbeck (Amara Staff) approved English subtitles for Archeology from space |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 11/16/2015. At 1:10, "Bendix" was changed to "Mendes."