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Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past
National Geographic Explorer and TED Prize-winner Dr. Sarah Parcak welcomes you to the exciting new world of space archaeology, a growing field that is sparking extraordinary discoveries from ancient civilizations across the globe.
In Archaeology from Space, Sarah Parcak shows the evolution, major discoveries, and future potential of the young field of satellite archaeology. From surprise advancements after the declassification of spy photography, to a new map of the mythical Egyptian city of Tanis, she shares her field’s biggest discoveries, revealing why space archaeology is not only exciting, but urgently essential to the preservation of the world’s ancient treasures.
Parcak has worked in twelve countries and four continents, using multispectral and high-resolution satellite imagery to identify thousands of previously unknown settlements, roads, fortresses, palaces, tombs, and even potential pyramids. From there, her stories take us back in time and across borders, into the day-to-day lives of ancient humans whose traits and genes we share. And she shows us that if we heed the lessons of the past, we can shape a vibrant future.
Includes Illustrations
In Archaeology from Space, Sarah Parcak shows the evolution, major discoveries, and future potential of the young field of satellite archaeology. From surprise advancements after the declassification of spy photography, to a new map of the mythical Egyptian city of Tanis, she shares her field’s biggest discoveries, revealing why space archaeology is not only exciting, but urgently essential to the preservation of the world’s ancient treasures.
Parcak has worked in twelve countries and four continents, using multispectral and high-resolution satellite imagery to identify thousands of previously unknown settlements, roads, fortresses, palaces, tombs, and even potential pyramids. From there, her stories take us back in time and across borders, into the day-to-day lives of ancient humans whose traits and genes we share. And she shows us that if we heed the lessons of the past, we can shape a vibrant future.
Includes Illustrations
283 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 9, 2019
249 people are currently reading
2379 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews
August 28, 2019
With a title like Archaeology from Space, I was expecting (and hoping for) more information on satellite imagery and mapping, telemetry, remote sensing, and LiDAR - how these systems and sciences are revolutionizing the field. And while each of those things are mentioned and briefly explained with examples, that was only 30% of the book.
The remaining 70% of the text is an introductory reference for archaeology, and more specifically Dr. Parcak's focus in Egyptology. It's fascinating to read her various anecdotes about excavations, conference presentations, academic rigamarole, but again... it's not what you are lead to believe from the title.
In fact, many sections of the book reminded me of a science memoir, like Lab Girl... For instance, she shares stories of filming with the BBC looking or Viking settlements in eastern Canada, her crowd-sourcing and citizen scientist Peruvian project GlobalXplorer, her experiences on numerous Egyptian digs (including the ins and outs of life at the dig camp), her work in anti-looting and antiquities repatriation, and her continued campaign in increasing diversity and accessiblity in the archaeological and related fields.
My favorite part of this book were her speculations on what archaeology might look like in 100 years. She imagines an archaeologist of the future using drones to survey, sample, and gather data of field sites within hours - a task that now takes decades of field and lab work. This call for technical expertise, and her prediction that archaeology will likely shift to be a subfield within materials science, engineering, and technology is intriguing - the field has been moving that way for the last few decades.
Including the title choice, there were other author/editorial decisions that didn't make sense to me; notably the use of BC/AD date conventions. These have long been abandoned in academic work in favor of BCE/CE, and the use of these terms felt out of place.
Worthwhile read, especially if you are curious about general archaeology, and Egypt in specific.
The remaining 70% of the text is an introductory reference for archaeology, and more specifically Dr. Parcak's focus in Egyptology. It's fascinating to read her various anecdotes about excavations, conference presentations, academic rigamarole, but again... it's not what you are lead to believe from the title.
In fact, many sections of the book reminded me of a science memoir, like Lab Girl... For instance, she shares stories of filming with the BBC looking or Viking settlements in eastern Canada, her crowd-sourcing and citizen scientist Peruvian project GlobalXplorer, her experiences on numerous Egyptian digs (including the ins and outs of life at the dig camp), her work in anti-looting and antiquities repatriation, and her continued campaign in increasing diversity and accessiblity in the archaeological and related fields.
My favorite part of this book were her speculations on what archaeology might look like in 100 years. She imagines an archaeologist of the future using drones to survey, sample, and gather data of field sites within hours - a task that now takes decades of field and lab work. This call for technical expertise, and her prediction that archaeology will likely shift to be a subfield within materials science, engineering, and technology is intriguing - the field has been moving that way for the last few decades.
Including the title choice, there were other author/editorial decisions that didn't make sense to me; notably the use of BC/AD date conventions. These have long been abandoned in academic work in favor of BCE/CE, and the use of these terms felt out of place.
Worthwhile read, especially if you are curious about general archaeology, and Egypt in specific.
July 20, 2019
Q:
The game is afoot. Expect surprises. (c)
Well thought-out perspective on the interaction between the past and the future.
Crowdsourcing:
Eyewire, Levantine Ceramics Project, Zooniverse (Galaxy Zoo), GlobalXplorer.
Q:
... archaeological work is all about possibilities. We hope to find answers to all our big questions beneath the Earth’s surface, but more often, we find more questions pointed back at us. The world now has a chance to take part in telling our shared human story, writing entirely new chapters and filling in the footnotes. We are all the storytellers for tomorrow. Our future depends on our ability to search from above and beneath, so we can look out to the stars and beyond, just like our ancestors did. (c)
Q:
In an age of a thousand distractions, we have to ask what wonder can really do. (c)
Q:
With so much new data, we will need to come up with innovative ways for the crowd to get involved. Taking advantage of drones in countries that allow them, we can ask the crowd to image newly discovered sites, providing detailed information that we cannot see from satellite imagery. The mission of platforms like GlobalXplorer could evolve from one of site detection to site categorization, with widgets to draw visible architecture or provide other information. (c)
Q:
All it would take for anyone to become an explorer is the will to discover, a screen, and a bit of patience. (c)
Q:
The archaeological record shows us how much of the past is still guiding us forward. So many of our modern traditions and practices have been around for many thousands of years. (c)
Q:
The Past Is Ever Present (c)
Q:
I’m not saying we shouldn’t attempt to travel to Mars. But the wording of the venture matters. Our world is the only one we’ve ever known, and giving up so irresponsibly on our home is not something our ancestors would have understood. Nature is resilient. (c)
Q:
Archaeologists function as cultural memory hoarders, the khaki-wearing bards singing the songs of cultures long absorbed back into the earth, hoping people pause for a moment and listen. Digging is, for me, a great act of rebellion, against capitalism, the patriarchy, you name it. Because at our core, archaeologists believe that everyone in the past is worth learning about: rich and poor, mighty and weak. (c)
Q:
An Egyptology colleague told me about taking his friend’s eight-year-old daughter to the Valley of the Kings, where a complex scene of the underworld in the tomb of Ramses VI had perplexed him for months. The little girl pointed out a tiny detail he had missed, and the whole scene finally made sense to him. I did not appreciate this story until Greg and I brought our then-four-year-old son to Egypt in the summer of 2017. To explain things, we got down on his level, and for the first time looked up. We saw things we had never seen before, in our 50 combined years of work in Egypt. (c)
Q:
My absolute favorite story—and my new favorite person—is Doris May Jones. Remember our elderly disabled grandparent archetype? Well, Doris is 91 years old and is largely housebound in her wheelchair in Cleveland, Ohio. She has always loved exploration and has a passion for geology. She signed up for GX straightaway, and, of course, she reached the level of Space Archaeologist. She is one of our top superusers. I had the chance to Skype with Doris, and I do not know who was more excited. Hearing her genuine enthusiasm and keenness made me think, you know, we really got something right. (c)
Q:
Satellite images shown at conferences or in publications sometimes look like bad acid trips. (c)
Q:
Everyone looking at satellite imagery extracts pixel-based data to detect subtle short-term versus long-term changes, or to detect features. We tweak and test algorithms depending on our research questions, and eventually, through sheer dumb luck or a moment of genius, we find something of interest, usually because we’re scraping the barrel bottom of possible techniques. When it turns out to be dried snot on our computer screen, this being science, we go back to the drawing board and try again. (c)
Q:
Arlen had found more ancient Maya sites than he had in 30 years of combing the jungle. Today, he can find 500 new Maya features before lunch from his desk in Las Vegas.
Such wholesale rethinking is not the product of a single flash of technical brilliance, but rather the result of decades of often serendipitous developments in the field of archaeology. To understand this takes a brief nosedive into the history of seeing ancient sites from afar. (c)
Q:
Fact, Not Truth
The purpose of archaeology is, to quote Indiana Jones, “… the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.” The field has evolved in the past century from one focused on things to one focused on the people behind the things, and the forces that drove people to change. Or not to change. (c)
Q:
Finding outbuildings may not seem like much, nor do they make headlines, but they set archaeologists’ minds alight. Tiny details matter to us. Outbuildings, collectively, tell us how the larger structures and farms could function. When a central farmhouse has associated buildings like a dairy for storing milk and a smithy for smelting iron tools, chances are good the farm was doing well. A lack of outbuildings adds other details to the bigger picture, and suggests the farmers were poor, perhaps struggling. And if the larger farms had shrunk over time, that shrinkage might be connected to declining resources caused by war, famine, or climate change. Now we don’t just have a small building. We have a story. (c)
Q:
When archaeologists uncover an extraordinary object, the energy of a site changes. Everyone looks like children on Christmas who have gotten exactly what they want. There was an electricity in the garden. (c)
Q:
Knowing what should be at a site or in a landscape may seem like the correct archaeological process, going from the known to unknown, but it can bias our perception.
And it can even lead us to find shapes where there are none—a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia; put technically, after spending hours processing satellite data, your eyes go funny. You see things where there is nothing, or miss things entirely. That’s why working in a team is crucial, so you can cross-check each other or just tell a weary or overenthusiastic colleague that he or she is smoking crack. (c)
Q:
We are always struggling on to the next step in the yellow brick road: the PhD, a postdoc position, a job, tenure, a promotion, a grant. Most people work their whole lives to retire and travel; we archaeologists keep working to keep digging, and we would all do it for free. Most of us have worked for free, at some point, though we shouldn’t have to. (c)
Q:
This discovery tells a tale of widespread human–landscape interaction over time; but reconstructing a single important episode in human history can only be done with a caveat. “Once upon a time” are the hidden words in every archaeological report. Most of us have a hard time reconstructing what happened last week in our own lives, but archaeologists must try to reconstruct entire ancient life spans. We are continuously editing our anecdote mechanisms, adapting our sagas for the latest publications and conference presentations—it’s something of a balancing act between science and fiction. (c)
Q:
Thousands of hidden stories are out there, about how past civilizations thrived, crashed, and were then reborn. To learn more about them, we first need to delve into how this field came into existence. (c)
The game is afoot. Expect surprises. (c)
Well thought-out perspective on the interaction between the past and the future.
Crowdsourcing:
Eyewire, Levantine Ceramics Project, Zooniverse (Galaxy Zoo), GlobalXplorer.
Q:
... archaeological work is all about possibilities. We hope to find answers to all our big questions beneath the Earth’s surface, but more often, we find more questions pointed back at us. The world now has a chance to take part in telling our shared human story, writing entirely new chapters and filling in the footnotes. We are all the storytellers for tomorrow. Our future depends on our ability to search from above and beneath, so we can look out to the stars and beyond, just like our ancestors did. (c)
Q:
In an age of a thousand distractions, we have to ask what wonder can really do. (c)
Q:
With so much new data, we will need to come up with innovative ways for the crowd to get involved. Taking advantage of drones in countries that allow them, we can ask the crowd to image newly discovered sites, providing detailed information that we cannot see from satellite imagery. The mission of platforms like GlobalXplorer could evolve from one of site detection to site categorization, with widgets to draw visible architecture or provide other information. (c)
Q:
All it would take for anyone to become an explorer is the will to discover, a screen, and a bit of patience. (c)
Q:
The archaeological record shows us how much of the past is still guiding us forward. So many of our modern traditions and practices have been around for many thousands of years. (c)
Q:
The Past Is Ever Present (c)
Q:
I’m not saying we shouldn’t attempt to travel to Mars. But the wording of the venture matters. Our world is the only one we’ve ever known, and giving up so irresponsibly on our home is not something our ancestors would have understood. Nature is resilient. (c)
Q:
Archaeologists function as cultural memory hoarders, the khaki-wearing bards singing the songs of cultures long absorbed back into the earth, hoping people pause for a moment and listen. Digging is, for me, a great act of rebellion, against capitalism, the patriarchy, you name it. Because at our core, archaeologists believe that everyone in the past is worth learning about: rich and poor, mighty and weak. (c)
Q:
An Egyptology colleague told me about taking his friend’s eight-year-old daughter to the Valley of the Kings, where a complex scene of the underworld in the tomb of Ramses VI had perplexed him for months. The little girl pointed out a tiny detail he had missed, and the whole scene finally made sense to him. I did not appreciate this story until Greg and I brought our then-four-year-old son to Egypt in the summer of 2017. To explain things, we got down on his level, and for the first time looked up. We saw things we had never seen before, in our 50 combined years of work in Egypt. (c)
Q:
My absolute favorite story—and my new favorite person—is Doris May Jones. Remember our elderly disabled grandparent archetype? Well, Doris is 91 years old and is largely housebound in her wheelchair in Cleveland, Ohio. She has always loved exploration and has a passion for geology. She signed up for GX straightaway, and, of course, she reached the level of Space Archaeologist. She is one of our top superusers. I had the chance to Skype with Doris, and I do not know who was more excited. Hearing her genuine enthusiasm and keenness made me think, you know, we really got something right. (c)
Q:
Satellite images shown at conferences or in publications sometimes look like bad acid trips. (c)
Q:
Everyone looking at satellite imagery extracts pixel-based data to detect subtle short-term versus long-term changes, or to detect features. We tweak and test algorithms depending on our research questions, and eventually, through sheer dumb luck or a moment of genius, we find something of interest, usually because we’re scraping the barrel bottom of possible techniques. When it turns out to be dried snot on our computer screen, this being science, we go back to the drawing board and try again. (c)
Q:
Arlen had found more ancient Maya sites than he had in 30 years of combing the jungle. Today, he can find 500 new Maya features before lunch from his desk in Las Vegas.
Such wholesale rethinking is not the product of a single flash of technical brilliance, but rather the result of decades of often serendipitous developments in the field of archaeology. To understand this takes a brief nosedive into the history of seeing ancient sites from afar. (c)
Q:
Fact, Not Truth
The purpose of archaeology is, to quote Indiana Jones, “… the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.” The field has evolved in the past century from one focused on things to one focused on the people behind the things, and the forces that drove people to change. Or not to change. (c)
Q:
Finding outbuildings may not seem like much, nor do they make headlines, but they set archaeologists’ minds alight. Tiny details matter to us. Outbuildings, collectively, tell us how the larger structures and farms could function. When a central farmhouse has associated buildings like a dairy for storing milk and a smithy for smelting iron tools, chances are good the farm was doing well. A lack of outbuildings adds other details to the bigger picture, and suggests the farmers were poor, perhaps struggling. And if the larger farms had shrunk over time, that shrinkage might be connected to declining resources caused by war, famine, or climate change. Now we don’t just have a small building. We have a story. (c)
Q:
When archaeologists uncover an extraordinary object, the energy of a site changes. Everyone looks like children on Christmas who have gotten exactly what they want. There was an electricity in the garden. (c)
Q:
Knowing what should be at a site or in a landscape may seem like the correct archaeological process, going from the known to unknown, but it can bias our perception.
And it can even lead us to find shapes where there are none—a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia; put technically, after spending hours processing satellite data, your eyes go funny. You see things where there is nothing, or miss things entirely. That’s why working in a team is crucial, so you can cross-check each other or just tell a weary or overenthusiastic colleague that he or she is smoking crack. (c)
Q:
We are always struggling on to the next step in the yellow brick road: the PhD, a postdoc position, a job, tenure, a promotion, a grant. Most people work their whole lives to retire and travel; we archaeologists keep working to keep digging, and we would all do it for free. Most of us have worked for free, at some point, though we shouldn’t have to. (c)
Q:
This discovery tells a tale of widespread human–landscape interaction over time; but reconstructing a single important episode in human history can only be done with a caveat. “Once upon a time” are the hidden words in every archaeological report. Most of us have a hard time reconstructing what happened last week in our own lives, but archaeologists must try to reconstruct entire ancient life spans. We are continuously editing our anecdote mechanisms, adapting our sagas for the latest publications and conference presentations—it’s something of a balancing act between science and fiction. (c)
Q:
Thousands of hidden stories are out there, about how past civilizations thrived, crashed, and were then reborn. To learn more about them, we first need to delve into how this field came into existence. (c)
February 19, 2020
Good book, although some of the windup chapters become windy & preachy. I skimmed that stuff, and some of the other "color" material. The technical parts, on identifying archaeological sites from space (and other remote-sensing data) were the most interesting for me, and I wish she'd spent more time on those. There's some very cool stuff in those parts, and she's an enthusiastic & knowledgeable pop-science writer. Cautiously recommended, depending on your interests.
Review at Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
Excerpt: [Tanis, Egypt] "Most of the city remains buried beneath the desert, a huge area that would take centuries to excavate by conventional means. So, she chose two satellite images of the site — one low resolution and multispectral, the other higher resolution but black and white — and combined them. As she writes, “I thought I was hallucinating: an entire ancient city leapt off the screen.” With details of houses, streets and suburbs, this was a trove indeed: the layout of the largest, most continuously occupied capital city in ancient Egypt.
Since [2010], Parcak has become famous — winner of a National Geographic Explorer grant and the US$1-million TED Prize (given for innovative, world-changing ideas), with multiple agents and high-profile media appearances. In Archaeology from Space, she sets out the story of the field for which she is the most recognizable face."
Review at Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
Excerpt: [Tanis, Egypt] "Most of the city remains buried beneath the desert, a huge area that would take centuries to excavate by conventional means. So, she chose two satellite images of the site — one low resolution and multispectral, the other higher resolution but black and white — and combined them. As she writes, “I thought I was hallucinating: an entire ancient city leapt off the screen.” With details of houses, streets and suburbs, this was a trove indeed: the layout of the largest, most continuously occupied capital city in ancient Egypt.
Since [2010], Parcak has become famous — winner of a National Geographic Explorer grant and the US$1-million TED Prize (given for innovative, world-changing ideas), with multiple agents and high-profile media appearances. In Archaeology from Space, she sets out the story of the field for which she is the most recognizable face."
March 21, 2020
It was amazing to see what the future of archeological research will look like and to know that the maintenance of our physical past is guaranteed and will be improved upon with emerging technology. Great read if you have a background in archaeology and/or anthropology.
September 23, 2020
The use of aerial, and later satellite photography to map out historical sites created an entirely new field of studies: Space Archaeology (an inelegant and over-broad name derived from a NASA project). Low resolution satellite photos exist as far back as the 1960s, and can be usefully compared to more modern ones to track changes in the environment, destruction by looters, and encroachment by cities and farms. New technologies, such as LIDAR to measure reflected laser light, have revolutionized the field, revealing thousands of previously unknown sites. Software plays an important part in the analysis of this data, allowing images to be overlaid upon each other to amplify visual data, reveal elevations, or show features that are most prominent under specific wavelengths of light.
Great advances have been made and much has been learned, but it seems to be a race against time as looting, by both individuals and organized criminal groups, destroys more and more sites. It is apparently a simple matter to use the internet to fence illegally obtained archaeological finds, as when the American craft store chain Hobby Lobby purchased Iraqi items even after their own legal team had urged them not to do so.
The book’s author, Sarah Parcak, has become one of the leading lights in Space Archaeology, hosting documentaries, TED talks, and, of course, writing this book. She has an ebullient personality and an almost childlike enthusiasm for her field. She was initially drawn to archaeology by that renowned scholar Indiana Jones, and her star-struck description of meeting Harrison Ford in person made me roll my eyes. Even Ford seemed to consider her some kind of over the top groupie.
At times the book seems less about archaeology and more the Sarah Parcek show, describing her life and the various digs she has participated in. Although her specialty is ancient Egypt at the intersection of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, she writes about digs she participated in in Iceland, Ireland, Africa, and Central America as well. Much of the book is about archaeology in general as opposed to Space Archaeology specifically. She spends pages telling the reader about the funding and planning involved in a dig, the organization of team members, and the day to day activities when on site. Somehow the romance of archaeology starts to fade when you realize it is mostly scraping away soil with a trowel centimeter by centimeter while sitting in the dirt under a blazing sun.
Parcek has a good writing style, and can clearly communicate her ideas. She even adds a fictional section where she attempts to give the reader a sense of what life was like for one woman in ancient Egypt during turbulent times. She also does a good job making the case for why archaeology is important, the lessons it can teach the modern world about how ancient civilizations met, or failed to meet, the challenges of war, climate change, and technological advances.
The book has footnotes, lots of them, sometimes five or six per page, and that is a good thing. Most lead to citations in professional journals, but others point to interesting books and websites. There is an unfortunate trend these days regarding footnotes in that publishers seem to think they will scare readers away, and often do not mark them in the text. Instead, they are placed in the back of the book identified by a key phrase, which is a cumbersome and inefficient way to check a citation.
Great advances have been made and much has been learned, but it seems to be a race against time as looting, by both individuals and organized criminal groups, destroys more and more sites. It is apparently a simple matter to use the internet to fence illegally obtained archaeological finds, as when the American craft store chain Hobby Lobby purchased Iraqi items even after their own legal team had urged them not to do so.
The book’s author, Sarah Parcak, has become one of the leading lights in Space Archaeology, hosting documentaries, TED talks, and, of course, writing this book. She has an ebullient personality and an almost childlike enthusiasm for her field. She was initially drawn to archaeology by that renowned scholar Indiana Jones, and her star-struck description of meeting Harrison Ford in person made me roll my eyes. Even Ford seemed to consider her some kind of over the top groupie.
At times the book seems less about archaeology and more the Sarah Parcek show, describing her life and the various digs she has participated in. Although her specialty is ancient Egypt at the intersection of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, she writes about digs she participated in in Iceland, Ireland, Africa, and Central America as well. Much of the book is about archaeology in general as opposed to Space Archaeology specifically. She spends pages telling the reader about the funding and planning involved in a dig, the organization of team members, and the day to day activities when on site. Somehow the romance of archaeology starts to fade when you realize it is mostly scraping away soil with a trowel centimeter by centimeter while sitting in the dirt under a blazing sun.
Parcek has a good writing style, and can clearly communicate her ideas. She even adds a fictional section where she attempts to give the reader a sense of what life was like for one woman in ancient Egypt during turbulent times. She also does a good job making the case for why archaeology is important, the lessons it can teach the modern world about how ancient civilizations met, or failed to meet, the challenges of war, climate change, and technological advances.
The book has footnotes, lots of them, sometimes five or six per page, and that is a good thing. Most lead to citations in professional journals, but others point to interesting books and websites. There is an unfortunate trend these days regarding footnotes in that publishers seem to think they will scare readers away, and often do not mark them in the text. Instead, they are placed in the back of the book identified by a key phrase, which is a cumbersome and inefficient way to check a citation.
September 26, 2019
"Empires fall but people rise."~ from Archeology From Space by Sarah Parcak
Perhaps it was the old National Geographics that Dad kept in the basement on a shelf, ordered by month and year. When I was bored I would go down and grab a dozen to read. I loved articles about Egypt and the evolution of mankind.
Or perhaps it was the big Time-Life book about early humans in the living room magazine rack. Or Gods, Graves, and Scholars which I read over and over as a teen.
By the time I took anthropology classes at college I was already long interested in humanity's distant past. I still enjoy reading articles about the latest finds and discoveries.
For Sarah Parcak, Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark fired her imagination. When she met Harrison Ford she brandished her fedora. (Hopefully, she never stapled it to her head to keep it on like Ford had to while filming!)
Parcak's grandfather was a WWII veteran of the 101st Airborne Division with a Ph.D. in forestry. He used aerial photography in his research.
Now Parcak is an archaeologist like Indy and uses space shots of Earth in her research. Archaeology from Space is the exciting story of how this cutting-edge technique helped her to discover thousands of previously unknown archeological sites, leading to new understandings of who we are by studying who we have been in the past.
I was enthralled by Parcak's imagining the life of an ancient Egyptian woman, spinning her story out of the excavated bones found at Tell Ibrahim Awad in Egypt.
She tells of the ups and downs of Egyptian empires to show how resilient humans are noting, "We've survived for over 200,000 years, and that's a decent track record." Yes, climate change is going to bring unimaginable challenges and disasters, but humans will survive.
Understanding how we have survived in the past helps us to understand--and affirm--our strengths. But sadly, looting has destroyed unstudied archeological sites all over the world. She describes landscapes littered with bones, mummy linens, and shards. The looted artifacts are sold online. Even the Christian founder of the craft and decor chain Hobby Lobby knowingly purchases stolen artifacts.
Parcak predicts all sites will be looted by mid-century. It is imperative to protect them. Her winning TED mission statement led to her creation of GlobalXplorer which gives the public a chance to participate in the important work of identifying unknown archeological sites using satellite imagery.
This is more than a book about digging around for the past; it's about the challenges of being a woman in archeology, envisioning new technologies, and how humans can use to past to better face the future.
I received a book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.
Perhaps it was the old National Geographics that Dad kept in the basement on a shelf, ordered by month and year. When I was bored I would go down and grab a dozen to read. I loved articles about Egypt and the evolution of mankind.
Or perhaps it was the big Time-Life book about early humans in the living room magazine rack. Or Gods, Graves, and Scholars which I read over and over as a teen.
By the time I took anthropology classes at college I was already long interested in humanity's distant past. I still enjoy reading articles about the latest finds and discoveries.
For Sarah Parcak, Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark fired her imagination. When she met Harrison Ford she brandished her fedora. (Hopefully, she never stapled it to her head to keep it on like Ford had to while filming!)
Parcak's grandfather was a WWII veteran of the 101st Airborne Division with a Ph.D. in forestry. He used aerial photography in his research.
Now Parcak is an archaeologist like Indy and uses space shots of Earth in her research. Archaeology from Space is the exciting story of how this cutting-edge technique helped her to discover thousands of previously unknown archeological sites, leading to new understandings of who we are by studying who we have been in the past.
I was enthralled by Parcak's imagining the life of an ancient Egyptian woman, spinning her story out of the excavated bones found at Tell Ibrahim Awad in Egypt.
She tells of the ups and downs of Egyptian empires to show how resilient humans are noting, "We've survived for over 200,000 years, and that's a decent track record." Yes, climate change is going to bring unimaginable challenges and disasters, but humans will survive.
Understanding how we have survived in the past helps us to understand--and affirm--our strengths. But sadly, looting has destroyed unstudied archeological sites all over the world. She describes landscapes littered with bones, mummy linens, and shards. The looted artifacts are sold online. Even the Christian founder of the craft and decor chain Hobby Lobby knowingly purchases stolen artifacts.
Parcak predicts all sites will be looted by mid-century. It is imperative to protect them. Her winning TED mission statement led to her creation of GlobalXplorer which gives the public a chance to participate in the important work of identifying unknown archeological sites using satellite imagery.
This is more than a book about digging around for the past; it's about the challenges of being a woman in archeology, envisioning new technologies, and how humans can use to past to better face the future.
I received a book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.
January 4, 2020
I really enjoyed the authors enthusiasm and I found her inspiring. The book was more stream of consciousness then book. It was disjointed and hard to follow and I found myself skimming at the end.
July 10, 2019
https://www.themaineedge.com/tekk/eye...
No matter how far we move into the future, there will always be much that we can learn from the past. And often, the achievements of the former lead directly to paradigm shifts in the latter.
That’s where Dr. Sarah Parcak comes in. She is a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham who is at the forefront of the cutting-edge field of space archaeology. Yes, you read that right – space archaeology. Through the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and other tools, Parcak and her colleagues have completely changed the game, finding thousands of heretofore unknown potential dig sites and unlocking whole new worlds of investigative possibilities.
The National Geographic Explorer, TED Prize-winner and all-around brilliant researcher has written a new book – “Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past” – aimed at sharing her work, its importance and the history behind it. It’s a chance to gain a closer understanding of the complexities of Parcak’s work, as well as the value that comes from digging into our ancient past. It’s a compellingly-written piece of popular science.
But it also offers something that other science-oriented nonfiction doesn’t – the warm, impassioned and funny voice of Sarah Parcak.
Satellite archaeology is still very much a young field – a field in which Sarah Parcak stands at the forefront – but there’s some history there, a lot of history. Almost since we’ve had the power of flight, we’ve been using that power to take pictures from up on high. And those pictures have long been a tool in the archaeologist’s ongoing quest to find learn more about what was here before.
Parcak walks us through some of that history – as well as her own history with science and archaeology, including formative relationships with figures such as her grandfather Harold Young (a longtime professor of forestry at the University of Maine) and noted archaeologist Indiana Jones – giving us a sense of not only who she is, but from whence she came.
From there, we get in an in-depth look at Parcak’s work, everything from doing boots-on-the-ground, trowel-and-brush field work to using satellite imagery as a way to uncover undiscovered sites that would never have been found by conventional means.
The details of the work, the descriptions of the seemingly-small things that she looks for in her quest to reveal more of our history – it’s all fascinating. She goes into the specifics enough to make the reader feel informed without ever going so far as to lose us in a sea of jargon and data.
But what makes this book really shine is how much of Sarah Parcak we get. Her passion for her work is omnipresent, leaping from every page with an enthusiasm that is undeniably infectious. This is someone who loves what she does with a joyful ferocity; we should all aspire to love our work the way that she does.
Creating a narrative flow with a book like this is tricky, but “Archaeology from Space” is a real success in that regard. Yes, we get loads of information regarding the technology and technical details – all of which is fascinating – but we’re also given a sense of the why. All these ruins and relics of the past – why are they important to the now? That’s the question that Parcak answers.
And those answers don’t always take the form you might expect. For instance, there are a couple of pieces of straight-up fiction folded into the proceedings. These stories – one told from the perspective of the past, the other from the future – serve as wonderful illustrations of the ideas Parcak is presenting. Their presence is a lovely surprise, a welcome nod to the notion that archaeology is in many ways, at its core, about telling stories.
Oh, and it’s actually funny. Not “trying not to be stuffy so here’s the occasional joke” funny. Funny-funny. One of the joys of this book (of which there are money) is the heartfelt humor that Parcak delivers. The tone could be described as mildly self-deprecatory with a little bit of an edge; she’s unafraid to punctuate thoughtful and/or technically dense segments with jokes that are unabashedly goofy. It’s not on every page, but it’s present enough to greatly enhance the overall reading experience.
That’s the thing about “Archaeology from Space” – it’s not just a smart book or a thoughtful book or an informative book. It’s a FUN book. It’s a book that will prove enlightening to all manner of reader, but perhaps most of all, it’s a book that one could see being the catalyst that sparks a young person’s passion, whether it be space archaeology or some other scientific endeavor. The passion within these pages has the potential to inspire.
“Archaeology from Space” is a wonderful piece of work, a book that entertains as it informs. Sarah Parcak offers up a look at her fascinating field, high into orbit and down into the Earth. She shows us how she uses the bleeding-edge of the future to dig deeper into the past, all while telling tales in a writerly voice that is sharp, witty and charming as hell.
Eat your heart out, Indy.
No matter how far we move into the future, there will always be much that we can learn from the past. And often, the achievements of the former lead directly to paradigm shifts in the latter.
That’s where Dr. Sarah Parcak comes in. She is a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham who is at the forefront of the cutting-edge field of space archaeology. Yes, you read that right – space archaeology. Through the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and other tools, Parcak and her colleagues have completely changed the game, finding thousands of heretofore unknown potential dig sites and unlocking whole new worlds of investigative possibilities.
The National Geographic Explorer, TED Prize-winner and all-around brilliant researcher has written a new book – “Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past” – aimed at sharing her work, its importance and the history behind it. It’s a chance to gain a closer understanding of the complexities of Parcak’s work, as well as the value that comes from digging into our ancient past. It’s a compellingly-written piece of popular science.
But it also offers something that other science-oriented nonfiction doesn’t – the warm, impassioned and funny voice of Sarah Parcak.
Satellite archaeology is still very much a young field – a field in which Sarah Parcak stands at the forefront – but there’s some history there, a lot of history. Almost since we’ve had the power of flight, we’ve been using that power to take pictures from up on high. And those pictures have long been a tool in the archaeologist’s ongoing quest to find learn more about what was here before.
Parcak walks us through some of that history – as well as her own history with science and archaeology, including formative relationships with figures such as her grandfather Harold Young (a longtime professor of forestry at the University of Maine) and noted archaeologist Indiana Jones – giving us a sense of not only who she is, but from whence she came.
From there, we get in an in-depth look at Parcak’s work, everything from doing boots-on-the-ground, trowel-and-brush field work to using satellite imagery as a way to uncover undiscovered sites that would never have been found by conventional means.
The details of the work, the descriptions of the seemingly-small things that she looks for in her quest to reveal more of our history – it’s all fascinating. She goes into the specifics enough to make the reader feel informed without ever going so far as to lose us in a sea of jargon and data.
But what makes this book really shine is how much of Sarah Parcak we get. Her passion for her work is omnipresent, leaping from every page with an enthusiasm that is undeniably infectious. This is someone who loves what she does with a joyful ferocity; we should all aspire to love our work the way that she does.
Creating a narrative flow with a book like this is tricky, but “Archaeology from Space” is a real success in that regard. Yes, we get loads of information regarding the technology and technical details – all of which is fascinating – but we’re also given a sense of the why. All these ruins and relics of the past – why are they important to the now? That’s the question that Parcak answers.
And those answers don’t always take the form you might expect. For instance, there are a couple of pieces of straight-up fiction folded into the proceedings. These stories – one told from the perspective of the past, the other from the future – serve as wonderful illustrations of the ideas Parcak is presenting. Their presence is a lovely surprise, a welcome nod to the notion that archaeology is in many ways, at its core, about telling stories.
Oh, and it’s actually funny. Not “trying not to be stuffy so here’s the occasional joke” funny. Funny-funny. One of the joys of this book (of which there are money) is the heartfelt humor that Parcak delivers. The tone could be described as mildly self-deprecatory with a little bit of an edge; she’s unafraid to punctuate thoughtful and/or technically dense segments with jokes that are unabashedly goofy. It’s not on every page, but it’s present enough to greatly enhance the overall reading experience.
That’s the thing about “Archaeology from Space” – it’s not just a smart book or a thoughtful book or an informative book. It’s a FUN book. It’s a book that will prove enlightening to all manner of reader, but perhaps most of all, it’s a book that one could see being the catalyst that sparks a young person’s passion, whether it be space archaeology or some other scientific endeavor. The passion within these pages has the potential to inspire.
“Archaeology from Space” is a wonderful piece of work, a book that entertains as it informs. Sarah Parcak offers up a look at her fascinating field, high into orbit and down into the Earth. She shows us how she uses the bleeding-edge of the future to dig deeper into the past, all while telling tales in a writerly voice that is sharp, witty and charming as hell.
Eat your heart out, Indy.
November 25, 2020
An interesting look at new technologies changing archeology. I enjoyed the explanation of crowd sourcing, globalxplorer, and open sources that make archeology available to anyone. If you like archeology give this a go.
February 16, 2022
Sweet book. Takes a look at new technologies in Archeology like LIDAR mapping and satellite photos and how they have led to numerous discoveries. Yet tempers that with a realistic eye towards what can sometimes be 'too bold' promises of how "dawg the metaverse is going to have archeology and everyone is going to love it. Lets start a DAO to create a human-centric ecosystem of Archaeologists who use a tokanized approach to bringing blockchain level ownership to dig sites." This book is instead a great practical look at how technology has shaped what most would think of as a low tech industry.
I love books that provide a survey of a subject from someone who is intimately familiar with the topic. It's like a college course condensed into a single book. This book is a fantastic example.
Oriented to be extremely approachable to lay people or those potentially interested in the field, the book covers a lot of really interesting transitions and developments in the field. From site selection to identification of places to explore, this book provides an interesting example of just how computers and statistics are changing every part of the world. The next time someone brings up Netflix's House of Cards as an example of data driven decision making, I'm chucking this book at their head. There are so many better examples.
I think one of the few drawbacks here is the shallow nature of the technology discussed. I would say that as a recovering tech guy, but I really wanted a bit more detail about it. But given how easy it is to get into the weeds on laser satellites, I can definitely see why Dr. Parcak did not include those bits. Maybe in her next book.
I love books that provide a survey of a subject from someone who is intimately familiar with the topic. It's like a college course condensed into a single book. This book is a fantastic example.
Oriented to be extremely approachable to lay people or those potentially interested in the field, the book covers a lot of really interesting transitions and developments in the field. From site selection to identification of places to explore, this book provides an interesting example of just how computers and statistics are changing every part of the world. The next time someone brings up Netflix's House of Cards as an example of data driven decision making, I'm chucking this book at their head. There are so many better examples.
I think one of the few drawbacks here is the shallow nature of the technology discussed. I would say that as a recovering tech guy, but I really wanted a bit more detail about it. But given how easy it is to get into the weeds on laser satellites, I can definitely see why Dr. Parcak did not include those bits. Maybe in her next book.
August 3, 2019
Informative, humorous and inspiring!
Sarah Parcak is enthusiastic and stimulating about archaeological data gathering, and advances in that field, of how satellite imaging has helped amongst many things, new archeological discoveries and assisted in the investigation of looting of sites globally. A leader in her field, a winner of the Ted talk 2015 million dollar award, and a force to be reckoned with.
Yet there is a humility to her writing that makes this book so much more engaging. She's witty and a fabulous communicator making this work so very approachable.
I felt like I was actually there with her. I'm no archeological or technological buff but I was mostly able to understand what she was talking about. She brings to the topic excitement, awe and the ability to inspire. This book is just so very readable!
Her humorous part about meeting Harrison Ford I found delightful. Actually she has quite a few humorous, even self deprecating asides throughout the book.
I remember traveling by bus (yes it was dangerous) across Mexico many, many moons ago, looking at the shapes of the mountains and the jungles and wondering what was hidden there. It seems Sarah and her associates may have found that way.
I read with some excitement about the investigations in Newfoundland. Having followed Norse settlements around that isle including L’Anse aux Meadows, over to Ireland, and whenever I'm in a part of the world where this is relevant, added to my delight. Her remarks about Vinland are fascinating, including her statement, 'I believe that more Norse sites will be found in Canada in the next decade.'
And then at the last there is what is happening now via the GlobalXplorer (GX) platform where ordinary folk can contribute to discovering the history of our civilizations. Parcak's 'inspiring idea' for the Ted talk award 'that would lead to global change', was to 'discover the millions of unknown archaeological sites across the globe. By building an online citizen-science platform and training a 21st-century army of global explorers, [to] find and protect the world’s hidden heritage, which contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity.'
As Sarah so aptly paraphrases at one stage, 'The game is afoot.'
And we could be part of it!
A Henry Holt ARC via NetGalley
Sarah Parcak is enthusiastic and stimulating about archaeological data gathering, and advances in that field, of how satellite imaging has helped amongst many things, new archeological discoveries and assisted in the investigation of looting of sites globally. A leader in her field, a winner of the Ted talk 2015 million dollar award, and a force to be reckoned with.
Yet there is a humility to her writing that makes this book so much more engaging. She's witty and a fabulous communicator making this work so very approachable.
I felt like I was actually there with her. I'm no archeological or technological buff but I was mostly able to understand what she was talking about. She brings to the topic excitement, awe and the ability to inspire. This book is just so very readable!
Her humorous part about meeting Harrison Ford I found delightful. Actually she has quite a few humorous, even self deprecating asides throughout the book.
I remember traveling by bus (yes it was dangerous) across Mexico many, many moons ago, looking at the shapes of the mountains and the jungles and wondering what was hidden there. It seems Sarah and her associates may have found that way.
I read with some excitement about the investigations in Newfoundland. Having followed Norse settlements around that isle including L’Anse aux Meadows, over to Ireland, and whenever I'm in a part of the world where this is relevant, added to my delight. Her remarks about Vinland are fascinating, including her statement, 'I believe that more Norse sites will be found in Canada in the next decade.'
And then at the last there is what is happening now via the GlobalXplorer (GX) platform where ordinary folk can contribute to discovering the history of our civilizations. Parcak's 'inspiring idea' for the Ted talk award 'that would lead to global change', was to 'discover the millions of unknown archaeological sites across the globe. By building an online citizen-science platform and training a 21st-century army of global explorers, [to] find and protect the world’s hidden heritage, which contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity.'
As Sarah so aptly paraphrases at one stage, 'The game is afoot.'
And we could be part of it!
A Henry Holt ARC via NetGalley
December 31, 2019
Sarah Parcak's "Archaeology from Space" covers a fascinating topic. It explores how satellite imagery is transforming our ability to discover the traces of past societies, revealing roads, crypts and other remnants from Viking Newfoundland to ancient Egypt.
The book ranges widely. Part memoir, part project history and part plea to preserve our shared heritage, it travels the globe and highlights the importance of unearthing archaeological artifacts in their proper context.
While the topic is fascinating, Parcak's writing doesn't meet the same standard. Her book is filled with forced jokes and dry stories from the field. Similarly, while her passion for preservation is commendable, it can also feel a bit exclusive, reserving every patch of dirt on the planet for archaeologists to dig through, when they have the time and money.
Parcak's expertise is obvious, but "Archaeology from Space" would have benefited from having another writer channel it.
The book ranges widely. Part memoir, part project history and part plea to preserve our shared heritage, it travels the globe and highlights the importance of unearthing archaeological artifacts in their proper context.
While the topic is fascinating, Parcak's writing doesn't meet the same standard. Her book is filled with forced jokes and dry stories from the field. Similarly, while her passion for preservation is commendable, it can also feel a bit exclusive, reserving every patch of dirt on the planet for archaeologists to dig through, when they have the time and money.
Parcak's expertise is obvious, but "Archaeology from Space" would have benefited from having another writer channel it.
January 23, 2020
There's a little bit of everything in this book, which is both its strength and it's weakness. Parcak explains the basics of how analysis of satellite and aerial photography helps archaeology but avoids a depth of detail. She also covers the basics of Egyptology and life on a dig site. There is some story-based recreation of an imaginary past and even imagining of the work of a future archaeologist. In the sections of the book, I found most compelling, Parcak details her work to identify looting and her pioneering of crowdsourcing techniques. The book is easy to read, and Parcak is fun to spend time with, but the quick mode-switching makes it a little unsatisfying and superficial in the end. It is clear that Parcak believes that she - and we - are living in the dying days of a civilization, and her reminder that when civilizations have failed to adapt to their changing circumstances, and collapsed, others have usually arisen. Whether that is applicable to our global economy or not, I'm not sure, but a dose of perspective is a fine thing.
April 6, 2019
I read this book as I also watched a great series on the National Geographic channel, Lost Secrets of the Maya. Both were absolutely fascinating! Although, the author's book goes into much more detail and has so much additional information and locations.
The gist of the story is that, due to advances in satellite detection, THOUSANDS of archaeological sites are being discovered! All over the world! Using satellites, we can now see through thick rain forest vegetation and under vast sand dunes. It's a very, very exciting time to be an archaeologist!
The author also tells many great stories of her experiences doing explorations. She's practically a real-life Indiana Jones!
If you have any interest at all in archaeology, or in past civilizations, this is a fantastic book to read! Highly recommend it.
The gist of the story is that, due to advances in satellite detection, THOUSANDS of archaeological sites are being discovered! All over the world! Using satellites, we can now see through thick rain forest vegetation and under vast sand dunes. It's a very, very exciting time to be an archaeologist!
The author also tells many great stories of her experiences doing explorations. She's practically a real-life Indiana Jones!
If you have any interest at all in archaeology, or in past civilizations, this is a fantastic book to read! Highly recommend it.
August 10, 2019
A good overview of the state of the art of archaeology today, looking at the practice and the issues that surround it, especially (as noted in the title) the new avenues being opened by satellite imagery. The author is passionate about the subject and asks great questions - her values and enthusiasm are obvious and admirable. I found myself wishing the book itself was a little more engaging, though - it falls a little short of what I was hoping for as writing. Still, if you think you’re interested in archaeology, this is a bright and interesting read.
July 27, 2019
Learned a lot about archaeology.
May 5, 2023
Summary: An interesting book, but it tried to be too many different things in under 300 pages.
Archeologist Dr. Sarah Parcak specializes in satellite archeology, an approach I hadn't heard of until I picked this book up for my science book club. Parcak has primarily worked in Egypt, so much of this book focuses on her work there. She's also worked on sites in South America and at candidate Viking sites on several continents. In this book, the author shares her experience on these projects and gives a brief intro to how satellite archeology is done.
The main complaint my book club had about this book was the brevity of the info on satellite archeology. We learned a little about the technology used and what those images could tell you. We're a group that would have liked a lot more detail though! (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reviewer from the scientific journal Nature felt the same way.) What makes it possible to see vegetation differences or to see through vegetation? What types of imaging and image processing let you identify specific details? Instead of focusing in on this fascinating work, the author gives a very light intro. She then packs a lot of other things into this short book.
The primary connection between chapters was the chronology of the author's life. As I've mentioned before, I like chronological stories. This can really work for me. It made for an enjoyable reading experience here. It also made sense given that a lot of the book was about the author's experiences. However, as a science memoir, this falls far short of something like Lab Girl, which had beautiful writing; was personally moving; and went into the science in much more depth. This story also felt disjointed, as we bounced around between topics and locations.
Fictional stories made for yet another element crammed into this book . These made up stories were used to illustrate what the past was like and what archeology might look like in the future. Responses to these sections in my book club ranged from disinterested (my reaction) to infuriated. Again, this group in particular isn't looking for fiction. We want to learn a lot about the science.
Despite the fact that my review has focused so much on the weaknesses of this book, I did enjoy reading it. What I learned about satellite archeology was fascinating and made me want to learn more. I also always enjoy getting a look at what the personal experience of doing an interesting job is like. My main reason for focusing on the negatives is that I think this book had the potential to be one really fantastic thing - a science memoir, a detailed look at satellite archeology, or a look at the daily lives of ancient Egyptians. Instead, the book tried to do all of those things in under 300 pages. Despite this being a good read, I felt like there was a lot of wasted potential here.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey
Archeologist Dr. Sarah Parcak specializes in satellite archeology, an approach I hadn't heard of until I picked this book up for my science book club. Parcak has primarily worked in Egypt, so much of this book focuses on her work there. She's also worked on sites in South America and at candidate Viking sites on several continents. In this book, the author shares her experience on these projects and gives a brief intro to how satellite archeology is done.
The main complaint my book club had about this book was the brevity of the info on satellite archeology. We learned a little about the technology used and what those images could tell you. We're a group that would have liked a lot more detail though! (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reviewer from the scientific journal Nature felt the same way.) What makes it possible to see vegetation differences or to see through vegetation? What types of imaging and image processing let you identify specific details? Instead of focusing in on this fascinating work, the author gives a very light intro. She then packs a lot of other things into this short book.
The primary connection between chapters was the chronology of the author's life. As I've mentioned before, I like chronological stories. This can really work for me. It made for an enjoyable reading experience here. It also made sense given that a lot of the book was about the author's experiences. However, as a science memoir, this falls far short of something like Lab Girl, which had beautiful writing; was personally moving; and went into the science in much more depth. This story also felt disjointed, as we bounced around between topics and locations.
Fictional stories made for yet another element crammed into this book . These made up stories were used to illustrate what the past was like and what archeology might look like in the future. Responses to these sections in my book club ranged from disinterested (my reaction) to infuriated. Again, this group in particular isn't looking for fiction. We want to learn a lot about the science.
Despite the fact that my review has focused so much on the weaknesses of this book, I did enjoy reading it. What I learned about satellite archeology was fascinating and made me want to learn more. I also always enjoy getting a look at what the personal experience of doing an interesting job is like. My main reason for focusing on the negatives is that I think this book had the potential to be one really fantastic thing - a science memoir, a detailed look at satellite archeology, or a look at the daily lives of ancient Egyptians. Instead, the book tried to do all of those things in under 300 pages. Despite this being a good read, I felt like there was a lot of wasted potential here.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey
April 27, 2021
This is a book about an interesting and unusual topic, that of gleaning archaeological information by using earth images obtained by satelite. The author's descriptions and explanations held my interest without getting me bogged down in the technicalities.
October 22, 2021
Stories, not things, lie in the disjointed sentences beneath the ground, and it is the job of the archeologist to coax them out and weave them into prose. p28
One might conclude, reading the above quote that it was written by a romantic with no experience of how daunting the task nor the gruelling physical nature of the work. Not so. Sarah Parcak not only is an expert in her field, she has expanded the field and helped usher in a revolution in archeological methodology. Remote scanning, although it has it's limits (constantly surpassed) reveals outlines impossible to discern except from a height, indicating not only likely places to dig but also sites of illegal digging.
Even when a field has been planted over for millennia, the stone foundations...affect crop growth.
p34
That doesn't mean that this ability to map and analyze data in days rather than years will take over the field.
Satellites and aerial data can see only so much, and they still require testing on the ground. p15
SP is a visionary and a realist, a poet and prophetic from her intimacy with the past. It's good to know that remote viewing has a positive use, outside of spying and sniping. I find it reassuring that she is aware of the social context in which she is bringing us the ruins of former civilizations.
Time doesn't care too much for the asperations of the wealthy. p155 she cautions.
Nothing disappears forever except socks. p148
December 10, 2019
Welp, I loved this book! I mean, I knew I would going in, as obsessed with space and archaeology as I am, and I liked Parcak's sense of humor. I found it all fascinating, and when she finally got around to talking about the fabulous Barbara Mertz (a.k.a. Elizabeth Peters, a.k.a. Barbara Michaels), I knew we were soul mates, ha!
Some folks seem to feel that there's not enough on space technology (satellite imagery, LIDAR, etc.) and too much on what being in the field is like. But at least at this point in time, both are necessary for a full picture of what a site holds, although her vision of what archaeology might look like 100 years from now is very different. Anyway, I feel like she gives a really good picture of what the options are, how they work, and how they're used to vastly speed up surveying. The use of this technology in archaeology is still pretty new, but it's clear that it's already been revolutionary, and, as the technology improves, should become even more so.
I think my only complaint is that I wanted more pictures, which is a pretty rare complaint from me outside of cookbooks, but here I was so interested in the things she's describing that I very much wanted to see them with my own eyes.
If you're interested in archaeology, especially Egyptology, as well as in how modern technology is changing it, I don't think you'll be disappointed in this book, unless you're looking for an instruction manual or something.
Some folks seem to feel that there's not enough on space technology (satellite imagery, LIDAR, etc.) and too much on what being in the field is like. But at least at this point in time, both are necessary for a full picture of what a site holds, although her vision of what archaeology might look like 100 years from now is very different. Anyway, I feel like she gives a really good picture of what the options are, how they work, and how they're used to vastly speed up surveying. The use of this technology in archaeology is still pretty new, but it's clear that it's already been revolutionary, and, as the technology improves, should become even more so.
I think my only complaint is that I wanted more pictures, which is a pretty rare complaint from me outside of cookbooks, but here I was so interested in the things she's describing that I very much wanted to see them with my own eyes.
If you're interested in archaeology, especially Egyptology, as well as in how modern technology is changing it, I don't think you'll be disappointed in this book, unless you're looking for an instruction manual or something.
December 31, 2019
I was very disappointed in this book. It was a Christmas present from a daughter and I had high expectations. It started out fine with some of the the advanced technology and some interesting examples but then seemed to deteriorate into mostly propaganda against looters, non archaeologists, and most collectors etc. She makes the point that there are millions of sites around the world and they are all precious and should only be touched by very few correct professionals and totally left alone by anyone else. And of course, we should all support these professionals with lots of money. Even the most mundane objects are valuable and need to be preserved and recorded "in place". Phooey, I like to see Gold masks in museums!
March 17, 2019
Archaeology from Space is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn about this profession! I was curious as my husband used to do what was called photo interpretation using specialized equipment to locate possible ancient sites that had not been looked at previously. I found much of what he did is still being done.. just with way better equipment! The author has certainly been all over the world and her insights were very interesting as well!
December 30, 2019
If you're interested in archaeology, you'll enjoy this book. I did. I rated it two stars instead of three solely because the title is very misleading. The book is about archaeology (Egyptology, mostly), with some satellite archaeology (and focus on other tech that's advancing the field) sprinkled throughout. I was hoping for an in-depth discussion of satellite archaeology, but this book doesn't offer that. It should have a different title that better captures the spirit of the book.
July 18, 2019
If you want to know everything about "a day in the life of an Archaeologist", this is great. However, it's closer to a collection of short stories told by the author, with only hints of space technology thrown in contrary to the title
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2020
I requested an advance review copy of this last year but I wasn't selected. As I only request books I am interested in (novel concept, I know, but some people just like to get lots of books and shotgun their requests...I'm judicious with the reading time I have left!), I filed it away for some day in the future to look for after it was published. So it's someday. Actually, last month was someday. I finished this at the end of January, but have had a hard time taking the time to write reviews. Call it "reviewer's block". Anyway...
Ms. Parcak writes a fun, informative, encouraging (and discouraging...more on that later) book. She talks about different technologies, her and others' uses of them, even projects a future of archeology. Not in great depth, but deep enough (pardon that...couldn't resist). And she has a sense of humor; talking about excavating Tebilla, an important port town of Egypt, and the use of 40 year old declassified satellite photos that later photos could not have picked up, she gave a bit of historical background
Some readers seem to have disliked Parcak fleshing out her story with an imagined story, but those readers clearly have no clue how to piece together puzzles from the past. That kind of approach helps, to a degree. Parcak says of the makeup of an excavation team: to "know anything about the function of an object requires so much more than the object in isolation, which is why a dig team pools such varied expertise." For an fun eye-opener, I recommend David Macaulay’s Motel of the Mysteries. Two thousand years in the future, when an amateur archeologist crossed an "abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber." I won't spoil Macaulay’s delightful book, but you should be able to imagine the point.
She talks about some of her work with the BBC, which had her analyze different locations for probable Norse sites. When told by the BBC that they had settled on a place on the island of Papa Stour in Scotland, where a couple had found on their farm a loom stone used by Vikings, she said "Hey, that place ranked last for us, eighth out of the eight sites for which we had data." And asking the director of the show if they had found anything yet, his "You'll see." prompted
A laugher for me, she said "After growing up in Maine, I’ve lived in the South now for 12 years, and I have come to like the heat. A lot." I grew up in Connecticut and have lived on both US coasts, north, south, middle and South Korea, stopping in Texas in 2007. so I've lived here 13 years. I will never like nor get used to the heat! I'm a bit older now and the cold isn't all that attractive, but the heat? Nope.
Now...discouraging... There is so much looting going on in the world (there are also the ideological destructions of Talibans and Daesh and ...) The interweb has enabled antiquities piracy and black marketing even more than the already sophisticated underworld had established. And the looting is visible from space. During "Arab Spring", Ms. Parcak met with meeting with Egypt’s ministers of tourism, foreign relations, antiquities, and foreign affairs, about which she said
In closing a chapter titled, "The Challenge", she says
Ms. Parcak writes a fun, informative, encouraging (and discouraging...more on that later) book. She talks about different technologies, her and others' uses of them, even projects a future of archeology. Not in great depth, but deep enough (pardon that...couldn't resist). And she has a sense of humor; talking about excavating Tebilla, an important port town of Egypt, and the use of 40 year old declassified satellite photos that later photos could not have picked up, she gave a bit of historical background
Herodotus called Artaxerxes III “a great warrior,” and he was certainly tenacious. He attacked Egypt again and again, first as head of the army and heir to the throne in 359 BC, and then as king of Persia, having knocked off 80 of his nearest and dearest at home to maintain control.The space analyses enabled the archeologists to locate walls of the city and artifacts likely residue from the sacking by Artaxerxes forces. And she pulls in her childhood idol Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark:
The purpose of archaeology is, to quote Indiana Jones, “… the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.”She met Harrison Ford in 2016 after a TED talk in Vancouver:
"Indiana Jones inspired me to go into archeology," I told him, "and inspired so many in my field. from all of us, thank you."And when it came time for photos, she produced a brown fedora at which Ford shook his head. I was going to be an archeologist...when I was 10... (yeah, well, I was going to be a paleontologist when I was 8 and an anthropologist when I was 9... I read a lot even then) Of those three broad disciplines/fields, archeology still has an attraction. I like structures.
"You do realize that I was just a character, right? You know more lines from that movie than I do." [...] Maybe he's just a very good actor, but I genuinely do not think he understood the impact he'd had on recent generations of our field until that moment.
Some readers seem to have disliked Parcak fleshing out her story with an imagined story, but those readers clearly have no clue how to piece together puzzles from the past. That kind of approach helps, to a degree. Parcak says of the makeup of an excavation team: to "know anything about the function of an object requires so much more than the object in isolation, which is why a dig team pools such varied expertise." For an fun eye-opener, I recommend David Macaulay’s Motel of the Mysteries. Two thousand years in the future, when an amateur archeologist crossed an "abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber." I won't spoil Macaulay’s delightful book, but you should be able to imagine the point.
She talks about some of her work with the BBC, which had her analyze different locations for probable Norse sites. When told by the BBC that they had settled on a place on the island of Papa Stour in Scotland, where a couple had found on their farm a loom stone used by Vikings, she said "Hey, that place ranked last for us, eighth out of the eight sites for which we had data." And asking the director of the show if they had found anything yet, his "You'll see." prompted
Something I do not understand about the television world is their yen for a big reveal with the presenter, to catch the “Oh my God!” moment of discovery. It frustrated the crap out of me. The team from the local archaeology unit had worked at Papa Stour for two days, but I was in the dark.She said upon seeing the 1,200 year old stone structure that her caution had nearly cost them the chance to see something ancient. Digs cost money. And time away from money-making jobs. And they're not the only things that cost. In a subsection appropriately titled "Knowledge Is Not as free as It Should Be"
Male or female, if you do not come from an upper-middle-class or a wealthy family, then your chances decrease for having an education, books, and internet access, let alone a successful career. If you’re lucky enough to have all these, plus the right connections, only then might you get the training you need to be an archaeologist. But as you begin your graduate work, you hit a literal wall. You’ll hit many of them: paywalls. Access to academic research represents one of the greatest hurdles to budding scientists across the world, when a single article from an online journal can cost $25 to download, which is easily a week’s wages for many government workers outside most Western countries. Journal subscriptions, bundled by corporate publishing superpowers such as Elsevier, can cost thousands of dollars, far beyond what any poorly funded ministry or university can affordSo true. I detest when papers are not available, or cost far more than my research is willing to pay (which is nothing.) Paywalls for information suck.
A laugher for me, she said "After growing up in Maine, I’ve lived in the South now for 12 years, and I have come to like the heat. A lot." I grew up in Connecticut and have lived on both US coasts, north, south, middle and South Korea, stopping in Texas in 2007. so I've lived here 13 years. I will never like nor get used to the heat! I'm a bit older now and the cold isn't all that attractive, but the heat? Nope.
Now...discouraging... There is so much looting going on in the world (there are also the ideological destructions of Talibans and Daesh and ...) The interweb has enabled antiquities piracy and black marketing even more than the already sophisticated underworld had established. And the looting is visible from space. During "Arab Spring", Ms. Parcak met with meeting with Egypt’s ministers of tourism, foreign relations, antiquities, and foreign affairs, about which she said
Those meetings changed my life. I knew, of course, the role of archaeology and history in global politics, but to experience them firsthand and have a role in shaping them—I had parachuted out of the ivory tower and into a bigger, scarier world.But she seems suited for it. She says "I love archaeology because it gives me insights into what it means to be human—real, physical evidence I can touch and ponder."
In closing a chapter titled, "The Challenge", she says
Archaeologists function as cultural memory hoarders, the khaki-wearing bards singing the songs of cultures long absorbed back into the earth, hoping people pause for a moment and listen. Digging is, for me, a great act of rebellion, against capitalism, the patriarchy, you name it. Because at our core, archaeologists believe that everyone in the past is worth learning about: rich and poor, mighty and weak.I feel it. I find joy when new pasts are uncovered, when artifacts are saved. I hurt when I see what looters (and poachers) are doing. And I have many things to see in my life...maybe someday I'll get to the Egypt she loves.
It’s not about skin color or whether someone was an immigrant or grew up on the wrong side of the donkey tracks. It’s about the human story. By the way, archaeologists are terrible gossips; we take fragments of data and spin them into grand tales of love, power, and political intrigue. Right or wrong, maybe we have added another footnote to the history of humanity.
The main challenge we face is that we are at risk of losing so much, when there is clearly so much left to find and protect.
September 4, 2019
This book is actually pretty cool. If you have any interest at all in archaeology, the book captures a lot of recent developments and gives a great sense of the current state of the field. It's written very casually, from the heart, not like a scientific or professional work but friendly and conversational. The stories are interesting, and in the second half of the book the author goes off on some creative tangents. In fact the best chapter is at the very end, her GlobalExplorer project, funded by $1 million from TED, which allowed crowdfunded exploration of potential archaeological sites.
The books covers not just space archaeology but other aspects as well, takes you to digs, and the warm-hearted and caring feelings of the author are very much on display.
I was going to give the book 3 stars, but the chapter towards the end on looting was so powerful and got me so upset I could barely read it, and now it falls more into the "must read" bucket of my recommended list. There's a hot place in hell for looters and destroyers of our collective past, and perhaps the spirits of the dead whose tombs have been looted torment them forever. Anyway, the book isn't Dava Sobel, it bounces around quite a bit, and some of the super casual comments made me cringe, but by the end this is the kind of author you want to give a hug to. The book is quite long and thorough and while not exciting, has enough to keep you reading. In all - a must read for those with an interest in archaeology, and a strong recommendation for anyone generally. One thing I will say is that it's rare I've _learned_ more about a topic than after reading this book. And I can see why people do this.
The books covers not just space archaeology but other aspects as well, takes you to digs, and the warm-hearted and caring feelings of the author are very much on display.
I was going to give the book 3 stars, but the chapter towards the end on looting was so powerful and got me so upset I could barely read it, and now it falls more into the "must read" bucket of my recommended list. There's a hot place in hell for looters and destroyers of our collective past, and perhaps the spirits of the dead whose tombs have been looted torment them forever. Anyway, the book isn't Dava Sobel, it bounces around quite a bit, and some of the super casual comments made me cringe, but by the end this is the kind of author you want to give a hug to. The book is quite long and thorough and while not exciting, has enough to keep you reading. In all - a must read for those with an interest in archaeology, and a strong recommendation for anyone generally. One thing I will say is that it's rare I've _learned_ more about a topic than after reading this book. And I can see why people do this.
September 21, 2020
"Archaeology is a hope machine for humanity."
Sarah Parcak is clearly a terrific and passionate archaeologist. Every page of her book is studded with enthusiasm for her livelihood.
Her central theme is captivating. It is amazing to learn how LIDAR and other remote sensing tools have revolutionized archaeology, especially in locating previously unknown sites. It is also fun to read Parcak's speculations on where archaeology might be in the near and distant future.
I also enjoyed learning about Parcak's work with the crowdsourced GlobalXplorer initiative and her work to fight against the looting of ancient sites.
This was an opportunity to learn something new, I only wish it had been more focused on the title subject.
Sarah Parcak is clearly a terrific and passionate archaeologist. Every page of her book is studded with enthusiasm for her livelihood.
Her central theme is captivating. It is amazing to learn how LIDAR and other remote sensing tools have revolutionized archaeology, especially in locating previously unknown sites. It is also fun to read Parcak's speculations on where archaeology might be in the near and distant future.
I also enjoyed learning about Parcak's work with the crowdsourced GlobalXplorer initiative and her work to fight against the looting of ancient sites.
This was an opportunity to learn something new, I only wish it had been more focused on the title subject.
March 31, 2020
Archaeology from Space is a wonderful, insightful, thoroughly interesting read that will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in archaeology and how technology can drive our understanding of the past. Engagingly written, with enthusiasm and passion leaping off the pages, we learn how satellite images can highlight past human activities, often in areas previous surveyed and in areas not expected. We are even invited to begin our own journey as Space Archaeologists, through the crowd sourced program created by the author and her team and contribute to archaeological work around the world right from our own computers.
March 25, 2022
2022 bk 70. I love Josh Gates. In several of the Destination Unknown episodes he refers to the use of satellite images in helping locate and define archaelogical sites. This book is by the U.S. version of how the use of satellite imagery for archaeology came about - but it is so much more. We join Parcak in a lifetime dig in Egypt as she creates a life for one of the women found buried there, exploring possible Viking sites in Newfoundland, a visit to North America sites, and the humongous cities in the middle Americas. Along the way we meet the people who utilize the latest technologies as specialists, the people of the past, and the archaeologists of the future. In addition, we meet ourselves and the possiblities available through crowdsourcing assistance in locating possible sites and monitoring looting through Zooniverse and Parcek's own GlovalXplorer. The possibilities are endless!
May 2, 2020
Excellent Read!
Sarah does a great job of presenting complex scientific topics (space photography and it's potential for Archaeology) in a way that is understandable for the citizen scientists without losing any of the content.
I wish I had read this a few years ago so I could have participated in the Global Explorer experience but who knows there may be other opportunities further down the line.
Sarah does a great job of presenting complex scientific topics (space photography and it's potential for Archaeology) in a way that is understandable for the citizen scientists without losing any of the content.
I wish I had read this a few years ago so I could have participated in the Global Explorer experience but who knows there may be other opportunities further down the line.
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