An archaeologist who uses satellite imagery to locate ancient pyramids, tombs and settlement and help protect such sites from looters has won a $1 million science prize.
Sarah Parcak, an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been announced as the recipient of the 2016 TED Prize, a $1 million grant given each year to a person "with a creative, bold vision to spark global change."
Parcak, who founded the university's Laboratory for Global Observation, is a pioneer in the field of space archaeology, which utilizes satellite imagery of the Earth to locate and map finds from Mayan ruins buried in Central American forests to hidden structures strung along Central Asia's Silk Road.
She has been credited with mapping 17 possible pyramids, nearly a thousand tombs and more than 3,000 previously unknown settlements in Egypt, using satellite infrared imagery.
Going beyond just discovery, Parcak is now using the imagery to combat looting at Middle Eastern archaeology sites.
She does that by looking for tiny black dots in the images, evidence of tunnels and holes dug by looters in search of artifacts that end up in a worldwide criminal black market for antiquities estimated at billions of dollars yearly.
"For the first time technology has gotten to the point where we can map looting," Parcak says.
Such looting has been in the headlines recently, as the Islamic State has looted and destroyed ancient cultural sites in Syria and Iraq.
It is speculated ISIS is involved in looting of archaeological sites as a source of income.
Parcak says she believes that's true.
"Is it funding terrorism?" she said. "The answer is yes, but we don't know the scale."
Parcak has headed a project to find and monitor signs of looting at two sites south of Cairo in Egypt.
"We can tell from the pictures where people are digging, and even the time period of a tomb that's been looted," she says. "Then we can alert law enforcement agencies to watch out for antiquities from that time that may come up for sale."
While archaeologists have long used aerial photography as a survey tool—starting with hot air balloons and moving on to aircraft and now drones—satellites can image immense amounts of territory quickly and economically, points out Parcak, who analyzed such images before recent fieldwork in Egypt.
"The time and cost savings are enormous," she explains. "I found about 70 sites in three weeks. It would have taken me at least three years if I'd approached it as a traditional foot survey."
