A Bird's-eye View of Archaeology

We have entered an exciting new era for archaeology. Satellite and aerial imaging is revolutionising the way that archaeologists work and how we detect the past. This technology is certainly a far cry from its beginnings in the autumn 1906 when one Lt. Philip Henry Sharp took to the air in a woven basket suspended beneath an army hydrogen balloon and flew over Stonehenge, snapping the first aerial photo of the famous site.

But even then, archaeologists could see that Sharpe’s photos were the beginning of something exciting for the future of archaeology. Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, a contemporary archaeologist, dreamed that one day in the future, field archaeologists would become like the birds!

These days, technology has turned Crawford’s dream into reality. Today, archaeologists can use imaging from NASA and commercial satellites orbiting at 700 kilometres (430 miles) above the earth. Pioneering this field of expertise is Dr Sarah Parcak from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Over the last five years Dr Parcak has utilised infra-red satellite imagery to locate over 1000 tombs, 3000 settlements and 17 pyramids lying just under the surface of the sands of Egypt which the naked eye has never been able to detect. 

Whereas the human eye detects only the colours of the spectrum, infra-red technology can detect density, even under the ground’s surface, and since mud-bricks of the type used in ancient Egypt have a higher density than sand, they show up under infra-red imaging from the satellites, even if they lie buried under that sand. Once the images are taken by satellite, the data is then beamed back to Parcak’s computer which allows her to see many different and varied ancient sites throughout Egypt that lay hidden from view for literally thousands of years. 

Perhaps Dr Parcak’s proudest achievement in using this advanced technology is the discovery of Tanis, one of ancient Egypt’s greatest capitals of the second millen

Early days

The era of aerial photography arrived with the develpment of the spotter planes over the trenches in World War 1, which contemporaries believed would be as revolutionary 

Childe identified and excavated the ruins of a number of house-dwellings, all built close to one another thousands of years ago and all virtually of the same size, suggesting the existence of some kind of a close-knit, egalitarian community. Of course, the ancient dwellers of Skara Brae knew nothing about Marx, but Childe’s discovery and excavation there marked a shift in archaeology away from merely recovering information about the ancient world’s elite like pharaohs, kings and emperors and toward a better understanding of everyday interaction between ordinary people in the society of millennia ago. 

A new view

After World War II, low-level aerial photography became more popular at important dig sites. First, platforms and extension ladders were utilised, then later scaffolding and cherry-pickers, as well as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) such as kites, blimps and remote-control aircraft, allowing 

publication even while the excavation is being undertaken. 

There are a number of advantages for the archaeolo- gist. As Stanford explains, it allows for a more detailed and accurate recording of excavations and findings. “As archaeological excavation is a destructive process, and in a lot of cases the evidence will only be available for recording for a relatively brief window of opportunity, I feel it’s very important to ensure the photographic record is of the highest quality possible. Hence my insistence on using the best cameras available!”

The use of high quality cameras atop a 22-metre (72 feet) mast means that archaeologists can achieve far more detailed images than what one gets from planes, drones or satellite. And there are other uses at any dig site already excavated. Notes Stanford: “Close study of the images as they are taken has in some cases led to the discovery of features that have previously not been noticed.”

Stanford has even allowed for use of the technology to those areas which are too inaccessible for a four-wheel d

Stanford’s work is a welcome addition to both present- day and future archaeology; Aerial-Cam is now used by commercial archaeologists, university field studies teams and other special project workers across a range of archaeological sites, from the pre-historic to contem- porary industrial.

Technology is catching up to what archaeologists of the past could once only have dreamed about: a bird’s-eye-view. As technology progresses ever further and economies improve, no doubt that technology will become ever more available to locating, identifying and recording many more important archaeological sites all over the world, strengthening our own connections with our ancestors and humanity’s common ancient heritage. As Dr Parcak puts it, new technology make us “think bigger, and that’s what satellites allow us to do. Indiana Jones is old school; we’ve moved on from Indy. Sorry, Harrison Ford.”