WEBVTT

00:00:01.226 --> 00:00:02.732
As an archaeologist,

00:00:02.732 --> 00:00:05.830
I'm most often asked
what my favorite discovery is.

00:00:06.657 --> 00:00:08.980
The answer's easy:

00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:10.537
my husband, Greg.

00:00:10.537 --> 00:00:11.587
(Laughter)

00:00:11.782 --> 00:00:14.045
We met in Egypt on my first dig.

00:00:14.324 --> 00:00:18.847
It was my first lesson in finding
unexpected wonderful things.

00:00:20.077 --> 00:00:23.226
This began an incredible
archaeological partnership.

00:00:24.610 --> 00:00:26.111
Years later,

00:00:26.111 --> 00:00:29.775
I proposed to him in front of our
favorite pair statue

00:00:29.775 --> 00:00:32.959
of the Prince and Princess
Rahotep and Nofret,

00:00:32.959 --> 00:00:34.296
in the Cairo Museum,

00:00:34.296 --> 00:00:36.414
dating to 4600 years ago.

00:00:36.414 --> 00:00:37.440
I mean, look at them,

00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:38.444
they're incredible.

00:00:38.444 --> 00:00:41.013
I think they should be
everyone's favorite pair statue.

00:00:41.013 --> 00:00:42.013
(Laughter)

00:00:42.354 --> 00:00:47.354
I thought, if I was going to ask Greg
to spend the rest of this life with me

00:00:47.354 --> 00:00:49.102
that I should ask him

00:00:49.102 --> 00:00:53.357
in front of two people who had pledged
to be together for eternity.

00:00:54.945 --> 00:00:56.348
These symbols endure

00:00:56.348 --> 00:00:57.993
because when we look at them,

00:00:57.993 --> 00:00:59.791
we're looking at mirrors.

00:00:59.791 --> 00:01:01.652
They are powerful reminders

00:01:01.652 --> 00:01:04.798
that our common humanity has not changed.

00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:11.879
The thrill of archaeological discovery
is as powerful as love

00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:17.221
because ancient history is the most
seductive mistress imaginable.

00:01:17.666 --> 00:01:20.234
Many archaeologists
have devoted their lives

00:01:20.234 --> 00:01:22.686
to unraveling the mysteries of the past

00:01:22.686 --> 00:01:27.426
under hot suns and Arctic winds,

00:01:27.426 --> 00:01:29.579
and in dense rainforests.

00:01:30.209 --> 00:01:31.656
Many seek,

00:01:31.656 --> 00:01:32.660
some discover,

00:01:32.660 --> 00:01:35.860
all worship at the temple of possibility

00:01:35.860 --> 00:01:39.026
that one discovery might change history.

00:01:40.258 --> 00:01:41.852
On my first day in Egypt,

00:01:41.852 --> 00:01:44.865
I worked at a site
in the Northeast Egyptian Delta

00:01:44.865 --> 00:01:46.420
at a site called Mendes,

00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:49.679
dating to 4,200 years ago in a cemetery.

00:01:49.679 --> 00:01:50.902
That's a picture of me --

00:01:50.902 --> 00:01:52.458
I'm just in my bliss.

00:01:52.771 --> 00:01:56.722
On a dig surrounded by
emerald green rice patties,

00:01:56.722 --> 00:01:59.591
I discovered an intact pot.

00:02:00.419 --> 00:02:02.168
Flipping it over,

00:02:02.168 --> 00:02:06.571
I discovered a human thumbprint
left by whoever made the vessel.

00:02:07.316 --> 00:02:08.323
For a moment,

00:02:08.323 --> 00:02:10.127
time stood still.

00:02:10.710 --> 00:02:12.362
I didn't know where I was.

00:02:12.652 --> 00:02:15.745
It was because at that moment I realized,

00:02:15.745 --> 00:02:17.126
when we dig,

00:02:17.126 --> 00:02:18.806
we're digging for people,

00:02:18.806 --> 00:02:20.314
not things.

00:02:21.445 --> 00:02:26.396
Never are we so present as when
we are in the midst of the great past.

00:02:27.254 --> 00:02:32.095
I can't tell you how many times I've stood
in front of the Pyramids of Giza,

00:02:32.095 --> 00:02:34.383
and they leave me speechless.

00:02:34.383 --> 00:02:37.662
I feel like the luckiest
person in the world.

00:02:38.739 --> 00:02:43.705
They're a monument to our human brilliance
and everything that is possible.

00:02:44.606 --> 00:02:47.598
Many cannot process
their brilliance as human --

00:02:47.598 --> 00:02:49.928
think that aliens built them --

00:02:49.928 --> 00:02:51.569
but this is ridiculous.

00:02:52.032 --> 00:02:55.332
All you need to do
is get up close and personal,

00:02:55.332 --> 00:02:57.827
and see the hidden hand of man

00:02:57.827 --> 00:03:01.697
in the chisel marks left
by the tools that built them.

00:03:02.913 --> 00:03:06.732
The Great Pyramid of Giza
was built one stone at a time

00:03:06.732 --> 00:03:10.075
with 2.3 million blocks

00:03:10.075 --> 00:03:13.174
with incredible bureaucratic efficiency.

00:03:14.171 --> 00:03:16.994
It is not the pyramids
that stand the test of time,

00:03:16.994 --> 00:03:18.996
it is human ingenuity.

00:03:19.296 --> 00:03:23.474
That is our shared human brilliance.

00:03:24.224 --> 00:03:27.434
History may be cyclical,

00:03:27.434 --> 00:03:29.951
but we are singular.

00:03:30.350 --> 00:03:31.949
I love what I do

00:03:31.949 --> 00:03:35.134
because I learn that we haven't changed.

00:03:36.243 --> 00:03:40.450
I get to read about mother-in-law
jokes from Mesopotamia

00:03:40.450 --> 00:03:42.265
from 3,500 years ago.

00:03:44.342 --> 00:03:49.507
I get to hear about neighbors cursing
each other from 4,600 years ago

00:03:49.507 --> 00:03:50.506
in Egypt.

00:03:50.506 --> 00:03:52.057
And my absolute favorite,

00:03:52.057 --> 00:03:55.109
from 3,300 years ago in Luxor,

00:03:55.109 --> 00:04:00.573
an inscription that describes school boys
who cut class to go drinking.

00:04:00.929 --> 00:04:02.318
(Laughter)

00:04:02.318 --> 00:04:04.310
Kids these days.

00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:05.634
(Laughter)

00:04:06.345 --> 00:04:10.420
I get to see the most
incredible architecture,

00:04:10.420 --> 00:04:12.573
see stunning sculptures --

00:04:12.573 --> 00:04:15.623
I mean this is basically
a selfie in stone --

00:04:15.623 --> 00:04:18.580
and see that we've always
rocked serious bling.

00:04:19.582 --> 00:04:20.826
And also,

00:04:20.826 --> 00:04:22.611
we've been posting on walls,

00:04:22.611 --> 00:04:24.554
and obsessing about cats --

00:04:24.554 --> 00:04:25.585
(Laughter)

00:04:25.585 --> 00:04:27.122
for thousands of years.

00:04:27.122 --> 00:04:28.153
(Laughter)

00:04:28.153 --> 00:04:29.694
(Applause)

00:04:33.265 --> 00:04:36.637
Archaeologists are the cultural
memory preservers

00:04:36.637 --> 00:04:39.800
and the spokespeople
for billions of people

00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.519
and the thousands of cultures
that came before us.

00:04:43.087 --> 00:04:46.205
Good science, imagination
and a leap of faith

00:04:46.205 --> 00:04:49.527
are the trifecta we use to raise the dead.

00:04:50.888 --> 00:04:52.139
In the last year,

00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:54.594
achaeologists have made
incredible discoveries,

00:04:54.594 --> 00:04:56.225
including ...

00:04:56.225 --> 00:04:59.521
new human ancestors from South Africa,

00:04:59.521 --> 00:05:02.623
tools from 3.3 million years ago --

00:05:02.623 --> 00:05:04.882
these are the oldest tools
ever discovered --

00:05:04.882 --> 00:05:06.164
in Kenya.

00:05:06.164 --> 00:05:07.320
And this,

00:05:07.320 --> 00:05:12.709
from a series of medical implements found
from Blackbeard's ship from 1718.

00:05:13.033 --> 00:05:18.074
What you're looking at is
a medical tool used to treat syphilis.

00:05:19.268 --> 00:05:20.758
Ouch.

00:05:20.758 --> 00:05:22.500
But how cool is that?

00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:24.194
(Laughter)

00:05:24.194 --> 00:05:25.560
For each of these,

00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:28.928
there are thousands of other
incredibly important discoveries

00:05:28.928 --> 00:05:30.459
made by my colleagues

00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:32.306
that do not make headlines.

00:05:32.882 --> 00:05:39.007
However, I believe that the most
important thing we do as archaeologists

00:05:39.007 --> 00:05:42.854
is acknowledge that past people existed

00:05:42.854 --> 00:05:45.262
and lived lives worth learning about.

00:05:45.859 --> 00:05:49.358
Can you even imagine what
the world would be like today

00:05:49.358 --> 00:05:53.005
if we acknowledged all
human beings in this way?

00:05:54.791 --> 00:05:58.686
So, on a dig, you have a challenge:

00:05:58.686 --> 00:06:00.569
it often looks like this.

00:06:00.569 --> 00:06:02.381
You can't see anything.

00:06:02.582 --> 00:06:04.419
Where are we going to start digging?

00:06:04.419 --> 00:06:06.152
This is from a site south of Cairo,

00:06:06.152 --> 00:06:08.409
so let's have a look from space.

00:06:08.683 --> 00:06:10.643
Again, you can't really see much.

00:06:10.643 --> 00:06:14.452
What you're looking at is
a WorldView-3 satellite image,

00:06:14.452 --> 00:06:17.542
which has a [point three-meter] resolution.

00:06:17.542 --> 00:06:18.942
That's 10 inches.

00:06:18.942 --> 00:06:23.348
This means that you can zoom in
from 400 miles in space,

00:06:23.348 --> 00:06:25.032
and see your tablets.

00:06:25.590 --> 00:06:27.317
How do I know about this?

00:06:28.002 --> 00:06:31.126
It's because I'm a space archaeologist.

00:06:32.162 --> 00:06:33.527
Let me repeat that.

00:06:34.062 --> 00:06:36.645
I am a space archaeologist.

00:06:36.854 --> 00:06:38.229
This means --

00:06:38.229 --> 00:06:39.230
(Applause)

00:06:39.230 --> 00:06:40.512
Thank you.

00:06:41.102 --> 00:06:43.332
This means that I use satellite images,

00:06:43.332 --> 00:06:45.518
and process them using algorithms,

00:06:45.518 --> 00:06:48.177
and look at subtle differences
in the light spectrum

00:06:48.177 --> 00:06:50.596
that indicate buried things
under the ground

00:06:50.596 --> 00:06:53.372
that I get to go excavate and survey.

00:06:53.597 --> 00:06:54.652
By the way,

00:06:54.652 --> 00:06:57.252
NASA has a Space Archaeology program,

00:06:57.252 --> 00:06:58.537
so it's a real job.

00:06:58.761 --> 00:06:59.876
(Laughter)

00:07:00.546 --> 00:07:02.033
So let's have a look again.

00:07:02.033 --> 00:07:04.141
We're back at the site
just south of Cairo.

00:07:04.141 --> 00:07:05.847
You can't see anything,

00:07:05.847 --> 00:07:09.180
so keep your eye on the red rectangle.

00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:12.060
When we process the image
using algorithms --

00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:15.669
think like a space-based CAT scan --

00:07:15.669 --> 00:07:18.015
this is what you see.

00:07:18.284 --> 00:07:21.913
This rectilinear form is an Ancient tomb

00:07:21.913 --> 00:07:24.537
that is previously unknown
and unexcavated,

00:07:24.537 --> 00:07:29.130
and you all are the first people
to see it in thousands of years.

00:07:29.702 --> 00:07:31.536
(Applause)

00:07:35.416 --> 00:07:38.266
I believe we have barely
scratched the surface

00:07:38.266 --> 00:07:40.434
in terms of what's left to discover.

00:07:41.094 --> 00:07:43.293
In the Egyptian Delta alone,

00:07:43.293 --> 00:07:47.134
we've excavated less than
[one-1000th] of one percent

00:07:47.134 --> 00:07:49.847
of the total volume of Egyptian sites.

00:07:50.474 --> 00:07:51.635
When you add to that

00:07:51.794 --> 00:07:54.844
the thousands of other sites
my team and I have discovered,

00:07:55.003 --> 00:07:58.509
what we thought we knew
pales in comparison

00:07:58.668 --> 00:08:00.626
to what we have left to discover.

00:08:01.286 --> 00:08:04.184
When you look at the incredible work
that my colleagues are doing

00:08:04.356 --> 00:08:05.473
all around the world,

00:08:05.616 --> 00:08:07.234
and what they're finding,

00:08:07.406 --> 00:08:12.867
I believe that there are millions
of undiscovered archaeological sites

00:08:12.993 --> 00:08:14.475
left to find.

00:08:14.717 --> 00:08:17.260
Discovering them will do nothing less

00:08:17.411 --> 00:08:20.994
than unlock the full potential
of our existence.

00:08:22.472 --> 00:08:25.045
But we have a challenge.

00:08:25.428 --> 00:08:26.899
Over the last year,

00:08:27.041 --> 00:08:29.619
we've seen horrible headlines

00:08:29.789 --> 00:08:34.079
of incredible destruction going on
to archaeological sites,

00:08:34.238 --> 00:08:37.226
and massive looting by people like ISIL.

00:08:37.712 --> 00:08:41.141
ISIL has destroyed temples at Palmyra.

00:08:41.307 --> 00:08:43.163
Who blows up a temple?

00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:46.285
They've destroyed the Tomb of Jonah,

00:08:46.458 --> 00:08:53.615
and we've seen looting at sites so rampant
it looks like craters of the moon.

00:08:55.247 --> 00:08:59.550
Knowing ISIL's desire to destroy
modern human lives,

00:08:59.693 --> 00:09:03.827
it's a natural extension for them
to destroy cultural identity as well.

00:09:04.060 --> 00:09:07.088
Countless invading armies
have done the same throughout history.

00:09:07.924 --> 00:09:11.802
We know that ISIL is profiting
from the looting of sites,

00:09:11.921 --> 00:09:14.064
but we don't know the scale.

00:09:14.239 --> 00:09:19.079
This means that any object purchased
on the market today from the Middle East

00:09:19.189 --> 00:09:21.999
could potentially be funding terrorism.

00:09:22.856 --> 00:09:24.659
When a site is looted,

00:09:24.816 --> 00:09:30.449
it's as if a puzzle already missing
90 percnet of it pieces

00:09:30.590 --> 00:09:33.549
has had the rest obscured
beyond recognition.

00:09:33.873 --> 00:09:36.283
This is ancient identity theft writ large.

00:09:36.800 --> 00:09:39.170
We know that there are two kinds
of looting going on:

00:09:39.326 --> 00:09:41.721
looting by criminal elements like ISIL,

00:09:41.910 --> 00:09:47.467
which of course is something that we
can barely come to terms with,

00:09:47.618 --> 00:09:51.667
and then more local looting
by those that are desperate for money.

00:09:51.917 --> 00:09:55.142
We would all do the same
to feed our families.

00:09:55.295 --> 00:09:57.341
I don't blame the local looters.

00:09:57.510 --> 00:09:59.790
I blame the middlemen,

00:09:59.980 --> 00:10:02.068
the unethical trafficers,

00:10:02.293 --> 00:10:04.128
and an International art market

00:10:04.286 --> 00:10:09.594
that exploits often ambiguous
or often completely nonexistent laws.

00:10:10.757 --> 00:10:15.084
We know looting is going on
on a global scale and it's increasing,

00:10:15.252 --> 00:10:18.336
but presently we don't have
any tools to stop it.

00:10:18.819 --> 00:10:20.553
This is beginning to change.

00:10:20.943 --> 00:10:25.486
My team and I have just completed a study
looking at looting in Egypt,

00:10:25.664 --> 00:10:27.834
and we looked at open source data,

00:10:27.987 --> 00:10:30.778
and mapped the entirety
of looting across Egypt

00:10:30.944 --> 00:10:33.446
from 2002 to 2013.

00:10:34.005 --> 00:10:36.151
We found evidence of looting
and site destruction

00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:38.633
at 267 sites,

00:10:38.788 --> 00:10:42.735
and mapped over 200,000 looting pits.

00:10:43.576 --> 00:10:44.772
It's astonishing.

00:10:44.961 --> 00:10:46.397
And putting that data together,

00:10:46.574 --> 00:10:49.339
you can see the looting pits marked here.

00:10:50.111 --> 00:10:51.363
And one site,

00:10:51.514 --> 00:10:55.373
as the looting got bad
from 2009, 2011, 2012 --

00:10:55.566 --> 00:10:57.507
hundreds of hundreds of pits.

00:10:58.379 --> 00:10:59.238
Putting all the data together,

00:10:59.408 --> 00:11:01.946
what we found is that contrary
to popular opinion,

00:11:02.140 --> 00:11:07.024
looting did not start to get worse
in Egypt in 2011 after the Arab Spring,

00:11:07.147 --> 00:11:09.109
but in 2009,

00:11:09.248 --> 00:11:11.139
after the global recession.

00:11:11.357 --> 00:11:13.923
Thus, we've shown with big data

00:11:14.074 --> 00:11:17.889
that looting is fundamentally
an economic issue.

00:11:18.637 --> 00:11:21.754
If we do nothing to stop the problem,

00:11:21.924 --> 00:11:25.983
all of Egypt's sites will be
affected by looting by 2040.

00:11:26.375 --> 00:11:29.506
Thus, we are at a tipping point.

00:11:29.692 --> 00:11:33.888
We are the generation with all the tools
and all the technologies to stop looting,

00:11:34.040 --> 00:11:37.093
but we're not working fast enough.

00:11:39.611 --> 00:11:44.166
Sometimes an archaeological site
can surprise you with its resilience.

00:11:45.079 --> 00:11:47.458
I am just back from the field

00:11:47.632 --> 00:11:51.054
where I co-led joint mission
with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquites

00:11:51.203 --> 00:11:52.867
at a site called Lisht.

00:11:53.085 --> 00:11:57.907
This site dates to the middle
kingdom of Egypt between 2000 and 1750 BC.

00:11:58.243 --> 00:12:00.709
The middle kingdom was Ancient Egypt's
Renaissance period.

00:12:00.851 --> 00:12:03.488
After a time of intense internal strife,

00:12:03.668 --> 00:12:04.852
and environmental challenges,

00:12:05.035 --> 00:12:06.143
Egypt rebounded

00:12:06.311 --> 00:12:10.998
with an incredible resurgence
of art, architecture and literature.

00:12:11.185 --> 00:12:13.106
It's a favorite period of time
to study in Egypt,

00:12:13.272 --> 00:12:15.373
because it teaches us so much

00:12:15.512 --> 00:12:19.877
about how we can survive and thrive
after great disasters.

00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:25.125
Now, at this site, we had already mapped
countless looting pits.

00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:26.685
Lisht is a [royal] site,

00:12:26.819 --> 00:12:28.279
there would have been thousands
of people buried there

00:12:28.412 --> 00:12:30.344
who lived and worked
at the court of Pharoah,

00:12:30.572 --> 00:12:32.212
and you can see this before and after --

00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:33.975
you see dozens of looting pits.

00:12:34.285 --> 00:12:34.963
North Lisht.

00:12:35.136 --> 00:12:36.226
This is in South Lisht:

00:12:36.372 --> 00:12:37.228
before ...

00:12:37.393 --> 00:12:38.707
and after.

00:12:39.699 --> 00:12:41.117
When we first visited the site,

00:12:41.306 --> 00:12:43.837
we could see the tombs
of many high-ranking officials

00:12:44.005 --> 00:12:45.363
that had been looted.

00:12:45.770 --> 00:12:48.131
Let me put into perspective
for you what was taken.

00:12:48.564 --> 00:12:51.265
Imagine a two meter-by-two meter area

00:12:51.451 --> 00:12:55.397
full of coffins, jewelry
and incredible statuary.

00:12:55.902 --> 00:12:59.096
Multiply that times over a thousand.

00:12:59.990 --> 00:13:01.711
That's what was taken.

00:13:02.361 --> 00:13:03.578
So when we started work,

00:13:03.738 --> 00:13:04.737
my Egyptian co-director,

00:13:04.931 --> 00:13:05.655
Mohamed Youssef,

00:13:05.824 --> 00:13:06.846
approached me and said,

00:13:07.030 --> 00:13:09.654
"We must work at this one particular tomb,

00:13:09.844 --> 00:13:11.406
it's been attacked by looters.

00:13:11.589 --> 00:13:12.649
If we don't do anything,

00:13:12.828 --> 00:13:13.802
they'll be back."

00:13:14.054 --> 00:13:14.964
Of course I agreed,

00:13:15.172 --> 00:13:16.932
but I didn't think we'd find anything.

00:13:17.129 --> 00:13:19.057
I thought the looters
had stolen everything.

00:13:19.281 --> 00:13:21.961
What we started to find
was the most incredible reliefs.

00:13:22.143 --> 00:13:23.181
I mean, look at this painting --

00:13:23.345 --> 00:13:24.007
it's just stunning.

00:13:24.210 --> 00:13:26.916
We started finding engraved inscriptions.

00:13:27.141 --> 00:13:28.965
And even the titles of the tomb owner --

00:13:29.152 --> 00:13:31.316
he had titles like,
"Overseer of the Army,"

00:13:31.472 --> 00:13:32.900
"Overseer of the Treasury."

00:13:33.109 --> 00:13:34.449
I began to have hope.

00:13:34.593 --> 00:13:35.141
Maybe,

00:13:35.336 --> 00:13:37.993
just maybe we would find his name.

00:13:38.198 --> 00:13:39.339
For the Ancient Egyptians,

00:13:39.534 --> 00:13:42.333
having your name last
for eternity was their goal.

00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:44.747
And then one day,

00:13:44.915 --> 00:13:46.096
this appeared.

00:13:46.483 --> 00:13:49.505
This is the name of the tomb owner,

00:13:49.701 --> 00:13:50.782
Intf.

00:13:51.035 --> 00:13:53.650
You can see it written out
here in hieroglyphs.

00:13:53.837 --> 00:13:56.408
Working together with my Egyptian team,

00:13:56.595 --> 00:14:00.552
we had restored someone's name
from 3,900 years ago.

00:14:01.607 --> 00:14:02.814
So here's the thing.

00:14:03.103 --> 00:14:07.966
I promised my team
that if we found his name,

00:14:08.147 --> 00:14:10.191
I would ululate.

00:14:10.386 --> 00:14:14.986
Ululation is a modern Egyptian
woman's victory song.

00:14:16.152 --> 00:14:18.135
A promise is a promise.

00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:22.078
Intf, son of [Ippe],

00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:24.590
overseer of the army,

00:14:24.776 --> 00:14:25.782
the justified --

00:14:25.951 --> 00:14:27.621
this is for you.

00:14:29.238 --> 00:14:31.753
(Ululating)

00:14:33.674 --> 00:14:35.721
(Applause)

00:14:40.929 --> 00:14:42.987
Working together
with my Egyptian colleagues,

00:14:43.144 --> 00:14:45.071
we celebrated this moment
of shared discovery.

00:14:45.293 --> 00:14:48.153
What we were doing together
was right and true.

00:14:48.721 --> 00:14:50.341
We found this incredible false door,

00:14:50.494 --> 00:14:51.354
mostly intact.

00:14:51.546 --> 00:14:54.396
On it we read about Intf
and his inscriptions.

00:14:54.568 --> 00:14:57.178
You can actually even see him seated here.

00:14:58.405 --> 00:14:59.854
What I realized

00:15:00.013 --> 00:15:04.540
is that everything I had assumed
about looted sites had been proved wrong.

00:15:04.705 --> 00:15:08.053
Every day on site we worked together
with 70 Egyptians

00:15:08.222 --> 00:15:10.953
as colleagues and friends.

00:15:11.151 --> 00:15:13.551
In the face of so much
hatred and ignorance

00:15:13.725 --> 00:15:15.697
against those in the Middle East,

00:15:15.815 --> 00:15:19.647
every moment on site felt like
a protest for peace.

00:15:20.496 --> 00:15:21.351
When you work with those

00:15:21.522 --> 00:15:25.008
that don't look like you
or think like you or speak like you,

00:15:25.128 --> 00:15:27.881
your shared mission
of archaeological discovery

00:15:28.104 --> 00:15:32.460
erases all superficial differences.

00:15:32.654 --> 00:15:36.027
What I learned this season

00:15:37.075 --> 00:15:38.184
is that archaeology
isn't about what you find,

00:15:38.318 --> 00:15:40.351
it's about what you can prove possible.

00:15:40.631 --> 00:15:43.595
So if sometimes when you travel
you end up finding long lost family,

00:15:43.775 --> 00:15:46.025
not those with whom you share genes,

00:15:46.225 --> 00:15:48.386
but a shared entry in the book of like.

00:15:48.819 --> 00:15:50.584
This is [Omar Farrouk],

00:15:50.757 --> 00:15:51.881
my brother.

00:15:52.233 --> 00:15:55.773
Omar's a Gufti from a village
just North of Luxor,

00:15:55.933 --> 00:15:56.820
called Guft.

00:15:57.011 --> 00:15:59.259
Guftis are part of a celebrated
tradition in Egyptology.

00:15:59.425 --> 00:16:02.454
They help with digging
and [work crew] organization.

00:16:02.648 --> 00:16:05.103
Omer is my COO and CFO.

00:16:05.219 --> 00:16:07.287
I simply couldn't do work without him.

00:16:08.256 --> 00:16:09.992
One day many years ago,

00:16:10.166 --> 00:16:11.669
when I was a young graduate student

00:16:11.852 --> 00:16:15.621
and Omer was a young Gufti
who couldn't speak much English,

00:16:15.853 --> 00:16:16.661
we learned,

00:16:16.852 --> 00:16:17.742
completely randomly,

00:16:17.938 --> 00:16:21.103
we were born on the same year,

00:16:21.254 --> 00:16:22.598
the same month

00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:26.505
and the same day six hours apart.

00:16:27.706 --> 00:16:28.806
Twins.

00:16:29.170 --> 00:16:30.564
(Laughter)

00:16:31.231 --> 00:16:32.339
Separated by an ocean,

00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:33.196
but forever connected

00:16:33.391 --> 00:16:36.216
for Ancient Egypt as our mother.

00:16:36.423 --> 00:16:38.369
I knew then we'd always work together.

00:16:38.558 --> 00:16:40.630
Not in my brain,

00:16:40.810 --> 00:16:45.307
but in the part of your soul that knows
that not everything can be explained.

00:16:46.749 --> 00:16:49.940
[eumar 'akhi,]

00:16:50.072 --> 00:16:53.257
[ wa'ana sawf 'ahabbak dayima.]

00:16:53.506 --> 00:16:55.240
Omer my brother,

00:16:55.422 --> 00:16:57.236
I will always love you.

00:16:58.307 --> 00:17:00.750
So just before my first dig in Egypt,

00:17:00.904 --> 00:17:01.811
my mentor --

00:17:01.976 --> 00:17:03.523
very famous Egyptologist,

00:17:03.683 --> 00:17:04.478
Professor William Kelley Simpson --

00:17:04.674 --> 00:17:06.007
called me into his office.

00:17:06.185 --> 00:17:09.624
He handed me a check for $2,000,

00:17:09.757 --> 00:17:12.293
and said, "This is to cover your expenses,

00:17:12.433 --> 00:17:14.461
have a glorious adventure this summer.

00:17:14.625 --> 00:17:18.309
Someday you will do this
for someone else."

00:17:19.326 --> 00:17:24.626
Thus, my TED Prize wish
is partial payback plus interest --

00:17:24.813 --> 00:17:25.340
(Laughter)

00:17:25.543 --> 00:17:29.010
for a great human being's
generosity and kindess.

00:17:30.699 --> 00:17:32.191
So, my wish.

00:17:33.063 --> 00:17:38.893
I wish for us to discover the millions
of unknown archeological sites

00:17:39.535 --> 00:17:40.389
around the world

00:17:40.614 --> 00:17:44.652
by created a 21st century army
of global explorerers.

00:17:44.945 --> 00:17:47.815
We'll find and protect
the world's hidden heritage,

00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:53.535
which contains clues to humankind's
collective resilience and creativity.

00:17:54.894 --> 00:17:56.626
(Applause)

00:17:56.879 --> 00:17:57.971
Thank you.

00:18:05.512 --> 00:18:07.462
So how are we going to do this?

00:18:08.288 --> 00:18:11.696
We are going to build
with the TED Prize money

00:18:11.863 --> 00:18:15.765
and online, crowd-sourced,
citizen science platform

00:18:15.910 --> 00:18:21.472
to allow anyone in the world to engage
with discovering archaeological sites.

00:18:22.985 --> 00:18:25.730
There are only a couple hundred of us
space archaeologists around the world.

00:18:26.212 --> 00:18:29.201
It is my dream to engage the world

00:18:29.422 --> 00:18:32.101
with helping to find sites
and protect them.

00:18:32.853 --> 00:18:35.114
What you'll do is you'll sign in,

00:18:35.267 --> 00:18:35.887
create a user name --

00:18:36.077 --> 00:18:38.690
this particular username is already taken.

00:18:39.228 --> 00:18:40.280
(Laughter)

00:18:40.956 --> 00:18:42.760
You'll take a tutorial
and you'll start work.

00:18:42.938 --> 00:18:44.215
I want to note at the outset

00:18:44.378 --> 00:18:48.303
that in no way will be sharing GPS
data or mapping data for sites.

00:18:48.662 --> 00:18:51.173
We want to treat them
like human patient data,

00:18:51.328 --> 00:18:52.987
and not reveal your locations.

00:18:53.182 --> 00:18:55.295
You'll know you're in Northern Italy
or Southern Peru,

00:18:55.454 --> 00:18:56.735
but you'll certainly not know
exactly where you are,

00:18:56.914 --> 00:18:58.371
we've got to protect the sites.

00:18:58.864 --> 00:19:00.373
You'll then be dealt a card from a deck,

00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:03.179
whether is 20-by-20 meters
or 30-by-30 meters,

00:19:03.378 --> 00:19:05.231
and you'll be looking then for features.

00:19:05.425 --> 00:19:08.471
My team will have [batch] processed
large amounts of satellite data

00:19:08.617 --> 00:19:09.865
using algorithms

00:19:10.038 --> 00:19:10.985
in order for you to find things,

00:19:11.153 --> 00:19:13.081
so you'll be doing really good science.

00:19:13.272 --> 00:19:14.838
You'll then be starting to look.

00:19:15.023 --> 00:19:15.579
What do you see?

00:19:15.777 --> 00:19:16.638
Do you see a temple?

00:19:16.802 --> 00:19:18.143
Do you see a tomb?

00:19:18.302 --> 00:19:19.288
Do you see a pyramid?

00:19:19.828 --> 00:19:23.418
Do you see any potential
site damage or site looting?

00:19:23.591 --> 00:19:25.605
You'll then begin to mark what's there,

00:19:25.776 --> 00:19:26.581
and off to the side

00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:30.412
are always going to be rich examples
of exactly what you're seeing

00:19:30.551 --> 00:19:31.786
to help guide you.

00:19:32.115 --> 00:19:36.443
All the data that you help us collect
will be shared with vetted authorities,

00:19:36.604 --> 00:19:39.690
and will help create
a new global alarm system

00:19:39.859 --> 00:19:41.524
to help protect sites.

00:19:42.479 --> 00:19:44.316
But it's not just going to stop there.

00:19:45.523 --> 00:19:48.491
All the archaeologists with whom
we share your discoveries

00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:52.274
will take you with them as they
begin to excavate them

00:19:52.456 --> 00:19:56.841
by using Periscope, Google Plus
and social media.

00:19:58.290 --> 00:19:59.593
A hundred years ago,

00:19:59.784 --> 00:20:02.275
archaeology was for the rich.

00:20:02.448 --> 00:20:04.125
50 years ago,

00:20:04.299 --> 00:20:05.643
it was for men.

00:20:05.835 --> 00:20:08.108
Now it's primary for academics.

00:20:08.766 --> 00:20:13.397
Our goal is to democratize the process
of archaeological discovery,

00:20:13.564 --> 00:20:15.875
and allow anyone to participate.

00:20:17.020 --> 00:20:18.875
94 years ago,

00:20:19.054 --> 00:20:21.622
Howard Carter discovered
the tomb of King Tut.

00:20:22.974 --> 00:20:25.093
Who is the next Howard Carter?

00:20:26.613 --> 00:20:28.245
It might be you.

00:20:30.941 --> 00:20:32.678
By creating this platform,

00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:37.301
we will find the millions of places
occupied by the billions of people

00:20:37.407 --> 00:20:39.011
that came before us.

00:20:39.246 --> 00:20:42.761
If we want to answer the big questions
about who we are

00:20:42.915 --> 00:20:44.126
and where we've come from,

00:20:44.284 --> 00:20:48.729
the answers to those questions do not lie
in pyramids or palaces,

00:20:48.729 --> 00:20:52.777
but in the cities and villages
of those that came before us.

00:20:53.455 --> 00:20:56.042
If we want to learn about the past,

00:20:56.202 --> 00:20:58.809
it's time we inverted the pyramids.

00:21:00.154 --> 00:21:03.746
Acknowledging that the past
is worth saving

00:21:03.921 --> 00:21:06.261
means so much more --

00:21:06.662 --> 00:21:10.731
it means that we're worth saving, too.

00:21:11.280 --> 00:21:15.844
And the greatest story ever told

00:21:15.990 --> 00:21:19.414
is the story of our shared human journey.

00:21:20.386 --> 00:21:23.679
But the only way that we're going
to be able to write it,

00:21:23.876 --> 00:21:26.747
is if we do it together.

00:21:28.109 --> 00:21:29.509
Come with me.

00:21:29.907 --> 00:21:30.889
Thank you.

00:21:31.468 --> 00:21:33.150
(Applause)