Le Saboteur
Active member
I first came across the idea of using remote sensory in modern archeology a couple of years back. Specifically speaking, in Jurassic Park -- Dr. Grant was using a version of radar while excavating velociraptor skeletons -- but it wasn't until a few years ago during Dr. Albert Lin's search for Genghis Khan's tomb that I heard of it being used in actual archeological work.
Today a husband and wife team have used lidar (light detection and ranging) to help determine the length and breadth of the ancient Mayan city of Caracol, reputed to be one of the largest cities in the lowlands. While it certainly takes more of the romance out of archeology, the technology has the potential to be quite useful in future excavations. Especially in heavily forested areas across the globe. Does it replace actually digging in the dirt? No, but administrators are bound to love it.
The attached podcast has an interview with the husband and wife team, and you can read the accompanying article over at The New York Times' site.
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/swfs/multiloader.swf" style="" id="p116325" name="p116325" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="opaque" flashvars="mp3=http://graphics8.nytimes.com/podcasts/2010/05/10/11science.mp3&duration=1530&contentPath=http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/INLINE_PLAYER/NYTInline.swf" width="100%" height="25">
And if you're interested, one of the people in the article, has published a book that "focuses on the practical application of remote sensing and how it can be applied to ongoing archeological work around the globe." Check it out here. In depth information on the dig in process can be found over at the site's site.