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Help discover ancient ruins — before it's too late

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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, 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 4,600 years ago.
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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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    then I should ask him
    in front of two people
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    who had pledged
    to be together for eternity.
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    These symbols endure
    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
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    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,
    I worked at a site
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    in the Northeast Egyptian Delta
    called Mendes, dating to 4,200 years ago,
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    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 the dig, surrounded
    by emerald green rice paddies,
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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, 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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    they think 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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    (Laughter)
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    I get to hear about neighbors
    cursing each other
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    from 4,600 years ago in Egypt.
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    And my absolute favorite,
    from 3,300 years ago in Luxor:
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    an inscription that describes schoolboys
    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, 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
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    for the billions of people
    and the thousands of cultures
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    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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    archaeologists have made
    incredible discoveries, 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, from a series
    of medical implements found
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    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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    (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, we 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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    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 .3 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 I use satellite images
    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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    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
    the thousands of other sites
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    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
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    that my colleagues are doing
    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,
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    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
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    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 percent 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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    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,
    the unethical traffickers
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    and an international art market
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    that exploits often ambiguous
    or even 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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    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 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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    At one site, the looting got bad
    from 2009, 2011, 2012 --
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    hundreds and 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, 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
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    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 a joint mission
    with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities
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    at a site called Lisht.
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    This site dates to the Middle Kingdom
    of Egypt between 2,000 and 1,750 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
    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
    about how we can survive and thrive
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    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 Pharaoh.
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    You can see this before and after;
    you see dozens of looting pits.
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    North Lisht.
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    This is in South Lisht, before 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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    Let me put into perspective
    for you what was taken.
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    Imagine a two meter by two meter area
    full of coffins, jewelry
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    and incredible statuary.
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    Multiply that times over a thousand.
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    That's what was taken.
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    So, when we started work,
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    my Egyptian co-director, Mohamed Youssef,
    approached me and said,
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    "We must work at this one particular tomb.
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    It's been attacked by looters.
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    If we don't do anything, they'll be back."
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    Of course I agreed,
    but I didn't think we'd find anything.
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    I thought the looters
    had stolen everything.
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    What we started to find
    were the most incredible reliefs.
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    Look at this painting --
    it's just stunning.
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    We started finding engraved inscriptions.
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    And even the titles of the tomb owner --
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    he had titles like,
    "Overseer of the Army,"
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    "Overseer of the Treasury."
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    I began to have hope.
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    Maybe, just maybe we would find his name.
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    For the ancient Egyptians, having
    their name last for eternity
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    was their goal.
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    And then one day,
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    this appeared.
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    This is the name of the tomb owner: Intef.
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    You can see it written out
    here, in hieroglyphs.
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    Working together with my Egyptian team,
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    we had restored someone's name
    from 3,900 years ago.
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    (Applause)
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    Working together
    with my Egyptian colleagues,
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    we celebrated this moment
    of shared discovery.
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    What we were doing together
    was right and true.
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    We found this incredible
    false door, mostly intact.
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    On it we read about Intef
    and his inscriptions.
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    You can actually even see him seated here.
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    What I realized is that everything
    I had assumed about looted sites
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    had been proven wrong.
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    Every day on site we worked
    together with 70 Egyptians
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    as colleagues and friends.
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    In the face of so much
    hatred and ignorance
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    against those in the Middle East,
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    every moment on site felt like
    a protest for peace.
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    When you work with those
    that don't look like you,
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    or think like you, or speak like you,
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    your shared mission
    of archaeological discovery
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    erases all superficial differences.
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    What I learned this season
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    is that archaeology
    isn't about what you find.
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    It's about what you can prove possible.
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    Sometimes when you travel,
    you end up finding long-lost family --
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    not those with whom you share genes,
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    but a shared entry in the book of life.
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    This is [Omar Farrouk], my brother.
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    Omar's a Gufti from a village
    just North of Luxor, called Guft.
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    Guftis are part of a celebrated
    tradition in Egyptology.
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    They help with digging
    and work crew organization.
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    Omar is my COO and CFO.
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    I simply couldn't do work without him.
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    One day many years ago,
    when I was a young graduate student
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    and Omar was a young Gufti
    who couldn't speak much English,
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    we learned, completely randomly,
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    that we were born in the same year,
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    the same month
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    and the same day, six hours apart.
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    Twins.
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    (Laughter)
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    Separated by an ocean,
    but forever connected
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    for Ancient Egypt is our mother.
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    I knew then we'd always work together --
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    not in my brain,
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    but in the part of your soul that knows
    not everything can be explained.
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    (Arabic) Omar by brother,
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    I will always love you.
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    (English) Omar my brother,
    I will always love you.
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    So, just before my first dig in Egypt,
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    my mentor, the very famous Egyptologist
    Professor William Kelley Simpson,
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    called me into his office.
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    He handed me a check for $2,000,
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    and said, "This is to cover your expenses.
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    Have a glorious adventure this summer.
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    Someday you will do this
    for someone else."
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    Thus, my TED Prize wish
    is partial payback, plus interest --
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    (Laughter)
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    for a great human being's
    generosity and kindness.
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    So, my wish.
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    I wish for us to discover the millions
    of unknown archaeological sites
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    around the world.
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    By creating a 21st-century army
    of global explorers,
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    we'll find and protect
    the world's hidden heritage,
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    which contains clues
    to humankind's collective resilience
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    and creativity.
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    (Applause)
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
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    So how are we going to do this?
  • 17:21 - 17:24
    We are going to build
    with the TED Prize money
  • 17:24 - 17:29
    an online, crowdsource,
    citizen science platform
  • 17:29 - 17:33
    to allow anyone in the world
    to engage with discovering
  • 17:33 - 17:34
    archaeological sites.
  • 17:36 - 17:39
    There are only a couple hundred of us
    space archaeologists around the world.
  • 17:39 - 17:42
    It is my dream to engage the world
  • 17:42 - 17:45
    with helping to find sites
    and protect them.
  • 17:46 - 17:49
    What you'll do is sign in,
    create a username --
  • 17:49 - 17:51
    note that this particular username
    is already taken.
  • 17:52 - 17:53
    (Laughter)
  • 17:53 - 17:56
    You'll take a tutorial
    and you'll start work.
  • 17:56 - 17:57
    I want to note at the outset
  • 17:57 - 18:01
    that in no way will be sharing
    GPS data or mapping data for sites.
  • 18:01 - 18:04
    We want to treat them
    like human patient data,
  • 18:04 - 18:05
    and not reveal their locations.
  • 18:06 - 18:10
    You'll then be dealt a card from a deck --
    20 x 20 meters or 30 x 30 meters,
  • 18:10 - 18:12
    and you'll be looking for features.
  • 18:12 - 18:14
    My team and I will have batch-processed
  • 18:14 - 18:17
    large amounts of satellite data
    using algorithms
  • 18:17 - 18:19
    in order for you to find things,
  • 18:19 - 18:20
    so you'll be doing really good science.
  • 18:20 - 18:22
    You'll then be starting to look.
  • 18:22 - 18:24
    What do you see? Do you see a temple?
  • 18:24 - 18:27
    Do you see a tomb? Do you see a pyramid?
  • 18:27 - 18:31
    Do you see any potential
    site damage or site looting?
  • 18:31 - 18:33
    You'll then begin to mark what's there.
  • 18:33 - 18:36
    And off to the side are always
    going to be rich examples
  • 18:36 - 18:39
    of exactly what you're seeing,
    to help guide you.
  • 18:39 - 18:44
    All the data that you help us collect
    will be shared with vetted authorities,
  • 18:44 - 18:47
    and will help create
    a new global alarm system
  • 18:47 - 18:49
    to help protect sites.
  • 18:50 - 18:51
    But it's not just going to stop there.
  • 18:53 - 18:56
    All the archaeologists with whom
    we share your discoveries
  • 18:56 - 18:59
    will take you with them
    as they begin to excavate them,
  • 18:59 - 19:04
    by using Periscope, Google Plus
    and social media.
  • 19:05 - 19:08
    A hundred years ago,
    archaeology was for the rich.
  • 19:09 - 19:11
    Fifty years ago,
  • 19:11 - 19:12
    it was for men.
  • 19:13 - 19:15
    Now it's primarily for academics.
  • 19:16 - 19:21
    Our goal is to democratize the process
    of archaeological discovery,
  • 19:21 - 19:23
    and allow anyone to participate.
  • 19:24 - 19:26
    Ninety-four years ago,
  • 19:26 - 19:29
    Howard Carter discovered
    the tomb of King Tut.
  • 19:30 - 19:32
    Who is the next Howard Carter?
  • 19:34 - 19:35
    It might be you.
  • 19:38 - 19:40
    By creating this platform,
  • 19:40 - 19:44
    we will find the millions of places
    occupied by the billions of people
  • 19:44 - 19:46
    that came before us.
  • 19:47 - 19:50
    If we want to answer
    the big questions about who we are
  • 19:50 - 19:51
    and where we've come from,
  • 19:51 - 19:56
    the answers to those questions
    do not lie in pyramids or palaces,
  • 19:56 - 20:00
    but in the cities and villages
    of those that came before us.
  • 20:01 - 20:03
    If we want to learn about the past,
  • 20:03 - 20:06
    it's time we inverted the pyramids.
  • 20:07 - 20:11
    Acknowledging that the past
    is worth saving
  • 20:11 - 20:12
    means so much more.
  • 20:14 - 20:17
    It means that we're worth saving, too.
  • 20:18 - 20:22
    And the greatest story ever told
  • 20:23 - 20:26
    is the story of our shared human journey.
  • 20:28 - 20:31
    But the only way we're going
    to be able to write it
  • 20:31 - 20:34
    is if we do it together.
  • 20:35 - 20:36
    Come with me.
  • 20:37 - 20:38
    Thank you.
  • 20:38 - 20:42
    (Applause)
Title:
Help discover ancient ruins — before it's too late
Speaker:
Sarah Parcak
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
21:48
  • Title: Sarah Parcak speaks at TED2016
    Description: Sarah Parcak speaks at TED2016

    =>

    Title: Help discover ancient ruins — before it's too late
    Description:
    Sarah Parcak uses satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth to uncover hidden ancient treasures buried beneath our feet. There's a lot to discover; in the Egyptian Delta alone, Parcak estimates we've excavated less than a thousandth of one percent of what's out there. Now, with the 2016 TED Prize and an infectious enthusiasm for archaeology, she's developed an online platform called GlobalXplorer that enables anyone with an internet connection to discover unknown sites and protect what remains of our shared human inheritance.

  • Kelley -> Kelly

    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kelly_Simpson

  • It's a favorite period of time
    to study in Egypt,
    # a favorite -> my favorite

  • Omer by brother,
    # by -> my

English subtitles

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