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As an archaeologist,

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I'm most often asked
what my favorite discovery is.

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The answer's easy:

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my husband, Greg.

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(Laughter)

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We met in Egypt on my first dig.

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It was my first lesson in finding
unexpected wonderful things.

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This began an incredible
archaeological partnership.

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Years later,

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I proposed to him in front of our
favorite pair statue

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of the Prince and Princess
Rahotep and Nofret,

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in the Cairo Museum,

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dating to 4600 years ago.

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I mean, look at them,

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they're incredible.

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I think they should be
everyone's favorite pair statue.

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(Laughter)

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I thought, if I was going to ask Greg
to spend the rest of this life with me

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that I should ask him

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in front of two people who had pledged
to be together for eternity.

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These symbols endure

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because when we look at them,

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we're looking at mirrors.

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They are powerful reminders

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that our common humanity has not changed.

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The thrill of archaeological discovery
is as powerful as love

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because ancient history is the most
seductive mistress imaginable.

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Many archaeologists
have devoted their lives

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to unraveling the mysteries of the past

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under hot suns and Arctic winds,

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and in dense rainforests.

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Many seek,

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some discover,

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all worship at the temple of possibility

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that one discovery might change history.

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On my first day in Egypt,

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I worked at a site
in the Northeast Egyptian Delta

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at a site called Mendes,

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dating to 4,200 years ago in a cemetery.

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That's a picture of me --

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I'm just in my bliss.

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On a dig surrounded by
emerald green rice patties,

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I discovered an intact pot.

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Flipping it over,

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I discovered a human thumbprint
left by whoever made the vessel.

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For a moment,

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time stood still.

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I didn't know where I was.

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It was because at that moment I realized,

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when we dig,

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we're digging for people,

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not things.

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Never are we so present as when
we are in the midst of the great past.

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I can't tell you how many times I've stood
in front of the Pyramids of Giza,

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and they leave me speechless.

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I feel like the luckiest
person in the world.

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They're a monument to our human brilliance
and everything that is possible.

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Many cannot process
their brilliance as human --

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think that aliens built them --

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but this is ridiculous.

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All you need to do
is get up close and personal,

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and see the hidden hand of man

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in the chisel marks left
by the tools that built them.

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The Great Pyramid of Giza
was built one stone at a time

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with 2.3 million blocks

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with incredible bureaucratic efficiency.

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It is not the pyramids
that stand the test of time,

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it is human ingenuity.

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That is our shared human brilliance.

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History may be cyclical,

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but we are singular.

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I love what I do

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because I learn that we haven't changed.

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I get to read about mother-in-law
jokes from Mesopotamia

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from 3,500 years ago.

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I get to hear about neighbors cursing
each other from 4,600 years ago

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in Egypt.

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And my absolute favorite,

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from 3,300 years ago in Luxor,

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an inscription that describes school boys
who cut class to go drinking.

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(Laughter)

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Kids these days.

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(Laughter)

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I get to see the most
incredible architecture,

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see stunning sculptures --

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I mean this is basically
a selfie in stone --

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and see that we've always
rocked serious bling.

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And also,

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we've been posting on walls,

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and obsessing about cats --

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(Laughter)

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for thousands of years.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Archaeologists are the cultural
memory preservers

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and the spokespeople
for billions of people

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and the thousands of cultures
that came before us.

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Good science, imagination
and a leap of faith

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are the trifecta we use to raise the dead.

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In the last year,

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achaeologists have made
incredible discoveries,

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including ...

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new human ancestors from South Africa,

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tools from 3.3 million years ago --

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these are the oldest tools
ever discovered --

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in Kenya.

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And this,

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from a series of medical implements found
from Blackbeard's ship from 1718.

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What you're looking at is
a medical tool used to treat syphilis.

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Ouch.

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But how cool is that?

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(Laughter)

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For each of these,

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there are thousands of other
incredibly important discoveries

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made by my colleagues

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that do not make headlines.

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However, I believe that the most
important thing we do as archaeologists

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is acknowledge that past people existed

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and lived lives worth learning about.

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Can you even imagine what
the world would be like today

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if we acknowledged all
human beings in this way?

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So, on a dig, you have a challenge:

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it often looks like this.

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You can't see anything.

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Where are we going to start digging?

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This is from a site south of Cairo,

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so let's have a look from space.

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Again, you can't really see much.

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What you're looking at is
a WorldView-3 satellite image,

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which has a [point three-meter] resolution.

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That's 10 inches.

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This means that you can zoom in
from 400 miles in space,

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and see your tablets.

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How do I know about this?

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It's because I'm a space archaeologist.

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Let me repeat that.

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I am a space archaeologist.

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This means --

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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This means that I use satellite images,

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and process them using algorithms,

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and look at subtle differences
in the light spectrum

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that indicate buried things
under the ground

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that I get to go excavate and survey.

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By the way,

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NASA has a Space Archaeology program,

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so it's a real job.

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(Laughter)

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So let's have a look again.

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We're back at the site
just south of Cairo.

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You can't see anything,

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so keep your eye on the red rectangle.

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When we process the image
using algorithms --

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think like a space-based CAT scan --

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this is what you see.

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This rectilinear form is an Ancient tomb

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that is previously unknown
and unexcavated,

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and you all are the first people
to see it in thousands of years.

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(Applause)

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I believe we have barely
scratched the surface

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in terms of what's left to discover.

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In the Egyptian Delta alone,

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we've excavated less than
[one-1000th] of one percent

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of the total volume of Egyptian sites.

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When you add to that

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the thousands of other sites
my team and I have discovered,

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what we thought we knew
pales in comparison

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to what we have left to discover.

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When you look at the incredible work
that my colleagues are doing

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all around the world,

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and what they're finding,

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I believe that there are millions
of undiscovered archaeological sites

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left to find.

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Discovering them will do nothing less

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than unlock the full potential
of our existence.

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But we have a challenge.

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Over the last year,

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we've seen horrible headlines

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of incredible destruction going on
to archaeological sites,

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and massive looting by people like ISIL.

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ISIL has destroyed temples at Palmyra.

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Who blows up a temple?

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They've destroyed the Tomb of Jonah,

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and we've seen looting at sites so rampant
it looks like craters of the moon.

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Knowing ISIL's desire to destroy
modern human lives,

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it's a natural extension for them
to destroy cultural identity as well.

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Countless invading armies
have done the same throughout history.

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We know that ISIL is profiting
from the looting of sites,

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but we don't know the scale.

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This means that any object purchased
on the market today from the Middle East

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could potentially be funding terrorism.

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When a site is looted,

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it's as if a puzzle already missing
90 percnet of it pieces

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has had the rest obscured
beyond recognition.

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This is ancient identity theft writ large.

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We know that there are two kinds
of looting going on:

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looting by criminal elements like ISIL,

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which of course is something that we
can barely come to terms with,

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and then more local looting
by those that are desperate for money.

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We would all do the same
to feed our families.

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I don't blame the local looters.

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I blame the middlemen,

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the unethical trafficers,

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and an International art market

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that exploits often ambiguous
or often completely nonexistent laws.

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We know looting is going on
on a global scale and it's increasing,

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but presently we don't have
any tools to stop it.

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This is beginning to change.

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My team and I have just completed a study
looking at looting in Egypt,

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and we looked at open source data,

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and mapped the entirety
of looting across Egypt

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from 2002 to 2013.

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We found evidence of looting
and site destruction

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at 267 sites,

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and mapped over 200,000 looting pits.

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It's astonishing.

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And putting that data together,

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you can see the looting pits marked here.

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And one site,

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as the looting got bad
from 2009, 2011, 2012 --

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hundreds of hundreds of pits.

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Putting all the data together,

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what we found is that contrary
to popular opinion,

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looting did not start to get worse
in Egypt in 2011 after the Arab Spring,

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but in 2009,

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after the global recession.

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Thus, we've shown with big data

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that looting is fundamentally
an economic issue.

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If we do nothing to stop the problem,

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all of Egypt's sites will be
affected by looting by 2040.

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Thus, we are at a tipping point.

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We are the generation with all the tools
and all the technologies to stop looting,

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but we're not working fast enough.

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Sometimes an archaeological site
can surprise you with its resilience.

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I am just back from the field

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where I co-led joint mission
with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquites

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at a site called Lisht.

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This site dates to the middle
kingdom of Egypt between 2000 and 1750 BC.

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The middle kingdom was Ancient Egypt's
Renaissance period.

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After a time of intense internal strife,

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and environmental challenges,

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Egypt rebounded

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with an incredible resurgence
of art, architecture and literature.

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It's a favorite period of time
to study in Egypt,

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because it teaches us so much

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about how we can survive and thrive
after great disasters.

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Now, at this site, we had already mapped
countless looting pits.

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Lisht is a [royal] site,

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there would have been thousands
of people buried there

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who lived and worked
at the court of Pharoah,

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and you can see this before and after --

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you see dozens of looting pits.

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North Lisht.

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This is in South Lisht:

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before ...

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and after.

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When we first visited the site,

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we could see the tombs
of many high-ranking officials

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that had been looted.

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00:12:45,770 --> 00:12:48,131
Let me put into perspective
for you what was taken.

262
00:12:48,564 --> 00:12:51,265
Imagine a two meter-by-two meter area

263
00:12:51,451 --> 00:12:55,397
full of coffins, jewelry
and incredible statuary.

264
00:12:55,902 --> 00:12:59,096
Multiply that times over a thousand.

265
00:12:59,990 --> 00:13:01,711
That's what was taken.

266
00:13:02,361 --> 00:13:03,578
So when we started work,

267
00:13:03,738 --> 00:13:04,737
my Egyptian co-director,

268
00:13:04,931 --> 00:13:05,655
Mohamed Youssef,

269
00:13:05,824 --> 00:13:06,846
approached me and said,

270
00:13:07,030 --> 00:13:09,654
"We must work at this one particular tomb,

271
00:13:09,844 --> 00:13:11,406
it's been attacked by looters.

272
00:13:11,589 --> 00:13:12,649
If we don't do anything,

273
00:13:12,828 --> 00:13:13,802
they'll be back."

274
00:13:14,054 --> 00:13:14,964
Of course I agreed,

275
00:13:15,172 --> 00:13:16,932
but I didn't think we'd find anything.

276
00:13:17,129 --> 00:13:19,057
I thought the looters
had stolen everything.

277
00:13:19,281 --> 00:13:21,961
What we started to find
was the most incredible reliefs.

278
00:13:22,143 --> 00:13:23,181
I mean, look at this painting --

279
00:13:23,345 --> 00:13:24,007
it's just stunning.

280
00:13:24,210 --> 00:13:26,916
We started finding engraved inscriptions.

281
00:13:27,141 --> 00:13:28,965
And even the titles of the tomb owner --

282
00:13:29,152 --> 00:13:31,316
he had titles like,
"Overseer of the Army,"

283
00:13:31,472 --> 00:13:32,900
"Overseer of the Treasury."

284
00:13:33,109 --> 00:13:34,449
I began to have hope.

285
00:13:34,593 --> 00:13:35,141
Maybe,

286
00:13:35,336 --> 00:13:37,993
just maybe we would find his name.

287
00:13:38,198 --> 00:13:39,339
For the Ancient Egyptians,

288
00:13:39,534 --> 00:13:42,333
having your name last
for eternity was their goal.

289
00:13:43,090 --> 00:13:44,747
And then one day,

290
00:13:44,915 --> 00:13:46,096
this appeared.

291
00:13:46,483 --> 00:13:49,505
This is the name of the tomb owner,

292
00:13:49,701 --> 00:13:50,782
Intf.

293
00:13:51,035 --> 00:13:53,650
You can see it written out
here in hieroglyphs.

294
00:13:53,837 --> 00:13:56,408
Working together with my Egyptian team,

295
00:13:56,595 --> 00:14:00,552
we had restored someone's name
from 3,900 years ago.

296
00:14:01,607 --> 00:14:02,814
So here's the thing.

297
00:14:03,103 --> 00:14:07,966
I promised my team
that if we found his name,

298
00:14:08,147 --> 00:14:10,191
I would ululate.

299
00:14:10,386 --> 00:14:14,986
Ululation is a modern Egyptian
woman's victory song.

300
00:14:16,152 --> 00:14:18,135
A promise is a promise.

301
00:14:19,070 --> 00:14:22,078
Intf, son of [Ippe],

302
00:14:22,279 --> 00:14:24,590
overseer of the army,

303
00:14:24,776 --> 00:14:25,782
the justified --

304
00:14:25,951 --> 00:14:27,621
this is for you.

305
00:14:29,238 --> 00:14:31,753
(Ululating)

306
00:14:33,674 --> 00:14:35,721
(Applause)

307
00:14:40,929 --> 00:14:42,987
Working together
with my Egyptian colleagues,

308
00:14:43,144 --> 00:14:45,071
we celebrated this moment
of shared discovery.

309
00:14:45,293 --> 00:14:48,153
What we were doing together
was right and true.

310
00:14:48,721 --> 00:14:50,341
We found this incredible false door,

311
00:14:50,494 --> 00:14:51,354
mostly intact.

312
00:14:51,546 --> 00:14:54,396
On it we read about Intf
and his inscriptions.

313
00:14:54,568 --> 00:14:57,178
You can actually even see him seated here.

314
00:14:58,405 --> 00:14:59,854
What I realized

315
00:15:00,013 --> 00:15:04,540
is that everything I had assumed
about looted sites had been proved wrong.

316
00:15:04,705 --> 00:15:08,053
Every day on site we worked together
with 70 Egyptians

317
00:15:08,222 --> 00:15:10,953
as colleagues and friends.

318
00:15:11,151 --> 00:15:13,551
In the face of so much
hatred and ignorance

319
00:15:13,725 --> 00:15:15,697
against those in the Middle East,

320
00:15:15,815 --> 00:15:19,647
every moment on site felt like
a protest for peace.

321
00:15:20,496 --> 00:15:21,351
When you work with those

322
00:15:21,522 --> 00:15:25,008
that don't look like you
or think like you or speak like you,

323
00:15:25,128 --> 00:15:27,881
your shared mission
of archaeological discovery

324
00:15:28,104 --> 00:15:32,460
erases all superficial differences.

325
00:15:32,654 --> 00:15:36,027
What I learned this season

326
00:15:37,075 --> 00:15:38,184
is that archaeology
isn't about what you find,

327
00:15:38,318 --> 00:15:40,351
it's about what you can prove possible.

328
00:15:40,631 --> 00:15:43,595
So if sometimes when you travel
you end up finding long lost family,

329
00:15:43,775 --> 00:15:46,025
not those with whom you share genes,

330
00:15:46,225 --> 00:15:48,386
but a shared entry in the book of like.

331
00:15:48,819 --> 00:15:50,584
This is [Omar Farrouk],

332
00:15:50,757 --> 00:15:51,881
my brother.

333
00:15:52,233 --> 00:15:55,773
Omar's a Gufti from a village
just North of Luxor,

334
00:15:55,933 --> 00:15:56,820
called Guft.

335
00:15:57,011 --> 00:15:59,259
Guftis are part of a celebrated
tradition in Egyptology.

336
00:15:59,425 --> 00:16:02,454
They help with digging
and [work crew] organization.

337
00:16:02,648 --> 00:16:05,103
Omer is my COO and CFO.

338
00:16:05,219 --> 00:16:07,287
I simply couldn't do work without him.

339
00:16:08,256 --> 00:16:09,992
One day many years ago,

340
00:16:10,166 --> 00:16:11,669
when I was a young graduate student

341
00:16:11,852 --> 00:16:15,621
and Omer was a young Gufti
who couldn't speak much English,

342
00:16:15,853 --> 00:16:16,661
we learned,

343
00:16:16,852 --> 00:16:17,742
completely randomly,

344
00:16:17,938 --> 00:16:21,103
we were born on the same year,

345
00:16:21,254 --> 00:16:22,598
the same month

346
00:16:22,789 --> 00:16:26,505
and the same day six hours apart.

347
00:16:27,706 --> 00:16:28,806
Twins.

348
00:16:29,170 --> 00:16:30,564
(Laughter)

349
00:16:31,231 --> 00:16:32,339
Separated by an ocean,

350
00:16:32,490 --> 00:16:33,196
but forever connected

351
00:16:33,391 --> 00:16:36,216
for Ancient Egypt as our mother.

352
00:16:36,423 --> 00:16:38,369
I knew then we'd always work together.

353
00:16:38,558 --> 00:16:40,630
Not in my brain,

354
00:16:40,810 --> 00:16:45,307
but in the part of your soul that knows
that not everything can be explained.

355
00:16:46,749 --> 00:16:49,940
[eumar 'akhi,]

356
00:16:50,072 --> 00:16:53,257
[ wa'ana sawf 'ahabbak dayima.]

357
00:16:53,506 --> 00:16:55,240
Omer my brother,

358
00:16:55,422 --> 00:16:57,236
I will always love you.

359
00:16:58,307 --> 00:17:00,750
So just before my first dig in Egypt,

360
00:17:00,904 --> 00:17:01,811
my mentor --

361
00:17:01,976 --> 00:17:03,523
very famous Egyptologist,

362
00:17:03,683 --> 00:17:04,478
Professor William Kelley Simpson --

363
00:17:04,674 --> 00:17:06,007
called me into his office.

364
00:17:06,185 --> 00:17:09,624
He handed me a check for $2,000,

365
00:17:09,757 --> 00:17:12,293
and said, "This is to cover your expenses,

366
00:17:12,433 --> 00:17:14,461
have a glorious adventure this summer.

367
00:17:14,625 --> 00:17:18,309
Someday you will do this
for someone else."

368
00:17:19,326 --> 00:17:24,626
Thus, my TED Prize wish
is partial payback plus interest --

369
00:17:24,813 --> 00:17:25,340
(Laughter)

370
00:17:25,543 --> 00:17:29,010
for a great human being's
generosity and kindess.

371
00:17:30,699 --> 00:17:32,191
So, my wish.

372
00:17:33,063 --> 00:17:38,893
I wish for us to discover the millions
of unknown archeological sites

373
00:17:39,535 --> 00:17:40,389
around the world

374
00:17:40,614 --> 00:17:44,652
by created a 21st century army
of global explorerers.

375
00:17:44,945 --> 00:17:47,815
We'll find and protect
the world's hidden heritage,

376
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:53,535
which contains clues to humankind's
collective resilience and creativity.

377
00:17:54,894 --> 00:17:56,626
(Applause)

378
00:17:56,879 --> 00:17:57,971
Thank you.

379
00:18:05,512 --> 00:18:07,462
So how are we going to do this?

380
00:18:08,288 --> 00:18:11,696
We are going to build
with the TED Prize money

381
00:18:11,863 --> 00:18:15,765
and online, crowd-sourced,
citizen science platform

382
00:18:15,910 --> 00:18:21,472
to allow anyone in the world to engage
with discovering archaeological sites.

383
00:18:22,985 --> 00:18:25,730
There are only a couple hundred of us
space archaeologists around the world.

384
00:18:26,212 --> 00:18:29,201
It is my dream to engage the world

385
00:18:29,422 --> 00:18:32,101
with helping to find sites
and protect them.

386
00:18:32,853 --> 00:18:35,114
What you'll do is you'll sign in,

387
00:18:35,267 --> 00:18:35,887
create a user name --

388
00:18:36,077 --> 00:18:38,690
this particular username is already taken.

389
00:18:39,228 --> 00:18:40,280
(Laughter)

390
00:18:40,956 --> 00:18:42,760
You'll take a tutorial
and you'll start work.

391
00:18:42,938 --> 00:18:44,215
I want to note at the outset

392
00:18:44,378 --> 00:18:48,303
that in no way will be sharing GPS
data or mapping data for sites.

393
00:18:48,662 --> 00:18:51,173
We want to treat them
like human patient data,

394
00:18:51,328 --> 00:18:52,987
and not reveal your locations.

395
00:18:53,182 --> 00:18:55,295
You'll know you're in Northern Italy
or Southern Peru,

396
00:18:55,454 --> 00:18:56,735
but you'll certainly not know
exactly where you are,

397
00:18:56,914 --> 00:18:58,371
we've got to protect the sites.

398
00:18:58,864 --> 00:19:00,373
You'll then be dealt a card from a deck,

399
00:19:00,559 --> 00:19:03,179
whether is 20-by-20 meters
or 30-by-30 meters,

400
00:19:03,378 --> 00:19:05,231
and you'll be looking then for features.

401
00:19:05,425 --> 00:19:08,471
My team will have [batch] processed
large amounts of satellite data

402
00:19:08,617 --> 00:19:09,865
using algorithms

403
00:19:10,038 --> 00:19:10,985
in order for you to find things,

404
00:19:11,153 --> 00:19:13,081
so you'll be doing really good science.

405
00:19:13,272 --> 00:19:14,838
You'll then be starting to look.

406
00:19:15,023 --> 00:19:15,579
What do you see?

407
00:19:15,777 --> 00:19:16,638
Do you see a temple?

408
00:19:16,802 --> 00:19:18,143
Do you see a tomb?

409
00:19:18,302 --> 00:19:19,288
Do you see a pyramid?

410
00:19:19,828 --> 00:19:23,418
Do you see any potential
site damage or site looting?

411
00:19:23,591 --> 00:19:25,605
You'll then begin to mark what's there,

412
00:19:25,776 --> 00:19:26,581
and off to the side

413
00:19:26,759 --> 00:19:30,412
are always going to be rich examples
of exactly what you're seeing

414
00:19:30,551 --> 00:19:31,786
to help guide you.

415
00:19:32,115 --> 00:19:36,443
All the data that you help us collect
will be shared with vetted authorities,

416
00:19:36,604 --> 00:19:39,690
and will help create
a new global alarm system

417
00:19:39,859 --> 00:19:41,524
to help protect sites.

418
00:19:42,479 --> 00:19:44,316
But it's not just going to stop there.

419
00:19:45,523 --> 00:19:48,491
All the archaeologists with whom
we share your discoveries

420
00:19:48,630 --> 00:19:52,274
will take you with them as they
begin to excavate them

421
00:19:52,456 --> 00:19:56,841
by using Periscope, Google Plus
and social media.

422
00:19:58,290 --> 00:19:59,593
A hundred years ago,

423
00:19:59,784 --> 00:20:02,275
archaeology was for the rich.

424
00:20:02,448 --> 00:20:04,125
50 years ago,

425
00:20:04,299 --> 00:20:05,643
it was for men.

426
00:20:05,835 --> 00:20:08,108
Now it's primary for academics.

427
00:20:08,766 --> 00:20:13,397
Our goal is to democratize the process
of archaeological discovery,

428
00:20:13,564 --> 00:20:15,875
and allow anyone to participate.

429
00:20:17,020 --> 00:20:18,875
94 years ago,

430
00:20:19,054 --> 00:20:21,622
Howard Carter discovered
the tomb of King Tut.

431
00:20:22,974 --> 00:20:25,093
Who is the next Howard Carter?

432
00:20:26,613 --> 00:20:28,245
It might be you.

433
00:20:30,941 --> 00:20:32,678
By creating this platform,

434
00:20:32,839 --> 00:20:37,301
we will find the millions of places
occupied by the billions of people

435
00:20:37,407 --> 00:20:39,011
that came before us.

436
00:20:39,246 --> 00:20:42,761
If we want to answer the big questions
about who we are

437
00:20:42,915 --> 00:20:44,126
and where we've come from,

438
00:20:44,284 --> 00:20:48,729
the answers to those questions do not lie
in pyramids or palaces,

439
00:20:48,729 --> 00:20:52,777
but in the cities and villages
of those that came before us.

440
00:20:53,455 --> 00:20:56,042
If we want to learn about the past,

441
00:20:56,202 --> 00:20:58,809
it's time we inverted the pyramids.

442
00:21:00,154 --> 00:21:03,746
Acknowledging that the past
is worth saving

443
00:21:03,921 --> 00:21:06,261
means so much more --

444
00:21:06,662 --> 00:21:10,731
it means that we're worth saving, too.

445
00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,844
And the greatest story ever told

446
00:21:15,990 --> 00:21:19,414
is the story of our shared human journey.

447
00:21:20,386 --> 00:21:23,679
But the only way that we're going
to be able to write it,

448
00:21:23,876 --> 00:21:26,747
is if we do it together.

449
00:21:28,109 --> 00:21:29,509
Come with me.

450
00:21:29,907 --> 00:21:30,889
Thank you.

451
00:21:31,468 --> 00:21:33,150
(Applause)