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Egyptians, Maya and Romans: How does new technologies disrupt our today’s archaeology?

Thilo Schinke

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Forget Indiana Jones! Today’s archaeologists use drones, LiDar and other cool tech gadgets to look back thousands of years.

Archaeology determines our view of forgotten worlds. It helps us to understand the historical factors that have already shaped our ancestors. It also protects and celebrates our rich and diverse cultural heritage. Following this determination, the most diverse fields of expertise come together. All over the world, networks of experts are emerging and exchanging information. Knowledge is shared and leads to new research findings and multinational expeditions.

This is also the explanation why the fusion of archaeology and future technologies is not surprising. Today’s archaeologists are perhaps even more technology lovers than adventurers. Technology has been used for decades to achieve faster and more efficient progress. One, if not the most important reason for its use is the integrity of artifacts. Instead of excavations and the redesign of historical sites, various technologies allow localization and analysis without turning over a stone.

Incredible discoveries thanks to technical possibilities

A principle of exponential technologies states that new generations can each access the entire knowledge of previous generations. If the first generations had pen and paper, the following generations could already use computers. Today’s generations can already access the first versions of the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality and other future technologies. Named after its inventor, the futurist Ray Kurzweil, this is called Kurzweils Law.

It is time to take a closer look at some of these possibilities.

LiDAR (light detection and ranging)

Invented in the 1970s, LiDAR works similarly to sonar, but with light instead of sound. The first major application was the scanning of the lunar surface during the Apollo 15 mission. Mounted under an airplane, a helicopter or — more recently — drones, this technology can be used to map large and impassable landscapes. The light partially penetrates the vegetation, which gives archaeologists an insight into geographical structures that have remained unchanged for thousands of years and are hidden from human eyes.

An excellent example of LiDAR as a gamechanger for future expeditions is the Pacunum LiDAR Initiative. Hidden in the jungle of Guatemala, scientists discovered over 60,000 buildings, palaces and entire cities of the historical world power Maya. This includes especially buildings around the city of Tikal. The investigated area amounts to an incredible 2,100 km². In comparison: The distance between Berlin and Munich is only about 500 km. With LiDAR, archaeologists have the possibility to have a look at entire structures instead of having to map them on site in years of painstaking work.

Ancient Maya city as LiDar image (Graphic: National Geographic)

Another gigantic project is the surveying of 2,300 km² of Cambodian jungle within only three years by the Australian archaeologist Dr. Damian Evans. With an accuracy of +/- 150 mm, several medieval towns were discovered. But the technology is also used in Europe, as in the discovery of the Borgring in Denmark. The 1,000 year old fortress was originally built by the Vikings.

Photogrammetry

Archaeologists are exposed to environmental factors such as rainy seasons but also to human influences such as armed conflicts. These limit their work. Sometimes they destroy entire historical artifacts and places. The most accurate and early documentation possible is therefore of central importance in order to fulfill the mission of archaeology to protect our cultural heritage.

If sketches were used for documentation in the beginning, the focus was then shifted to photography. Today, these photos and videos are further processed into 3D models by photogrammetry. Although this technique was first used in 1885, it is only today’s powerful computers that provide qualitative results from hundreds of images.

The British Museum offers a great example of the use of photogrammetry on the 3D platform Sketchfab. Visitors can access 3D sculptures free of charge, which convey something about their history with explanations and audio guides. Anyone with Internet access can access this knowledge worldwide.

How important photogrammetry is and can become, is also shown by the example of the Temple of the Weather God in Aleppo (Syria). This temple is one of the most important buildings of the ancient Orient. It was destroyed by the war in Syria in 2012. A team of archaeologists had succeeded in documenting large parts in 3D the year before. This was the origin of the Berlin pioneering collaboration between the Near Eastern archaeologist Kay Kohlmeyer and the game designer Thomas Bremer. The scientists now have the opportunity to digitally move through the temple, decipher the inscriptions and make new discoveries. If one thinks about it further, the technology will (hopefully) also enable schoolchildren and people hungry for knowledge to go on a voyage of discovery everywhere in the future.

Artificial intelligence (more precisely: machine learning)

For 23 years people tried to decipher the hieroglyphics, the ancient Egyptian written language. All it took in the end was a 31-year-old Frenchman and the Rosette Stone. That was on September 27, 1822.

Almost 200 years later, MIT researchers under the direction of Professor Regina Barzilay have now built an artificial intelligence that can decipher lost languages. It is not (yet) a translation machine, but helps to identify relationships to other languages. An important step for linguists and archaeologists. “For example, we can identify all references to people or places in the document, which can then be further investigated in the light of known historical evidence,” says Barzilay.

Taking this a step further, archaeologists around the world could use their smartphones to scan inscriptions in temples and artifacts and see their translation in real time — similar to the feature that Google Translator already offers to every smartphone user today.

Geophysical methods

The use of geophysical methods belongs to the repertoire of most archaeologists. It serves to look into the interior of the ground before starting time-consuming and expensive excavations. Known methods are GPR, ERI, Magnometer and EMI.

GPR (Ground-Penetrating Radar) is the most accurate and high resolution of these technologies. It sends small energy pulses into the ground and thus scans it. ERI (Electrical resistivity imaging) measures the electrical resistance and thus determines the depth of soils and stone structures. Magnetometers determine the strength and direction of magnetic fields. They are used to detect human activity that has increased magnetism. In EMI (electromagnetic induction measurement), a coil generates a magnetic field that can be used to locate the course of walls, trenches and pits.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The networking of different devices and sensors and their intensive exchange without human intervention is called the Internet of Things. In archaeology, IoT enables a new kind of human-robot cooperation.

The project “Archeosub”, for example, uses autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for mapping and delimiting archaeologically interesting sites. Through networking, the robots, sensors and human divers can be coordinated and work together more efficiently.

Hyperspectral imaging

As the Fraunhofer Institute so wonderfully wrote: “Hyperspectral imaging can make the invisible visible”. For this purpose, high-resolution images are taken with different wavelengths of light. Overpainted writings can thus reappear.

Soil analyses

Understanding what materials our ancestors used, where they came from and what techniques they used allows archaeologists to better understand the distribution and flow of goods. Soil and material analyses are a central tool in this process.

A lot to discover with little time: The crowd as assistant scientists

All these technological possibilities lead to a diversity and acceleration of scientific work. While archaeologists used to be on their own in the past, today they are sometimes faced with the challenge of not getting too lost in (unimportant) details.

A great tool for this is crowdsourcing. The human need to make a scientific contribution serves as a drive to employ interested people in dilligence work. A scientific education is not required. The only requirements are interest and the contribution of one’s own time.

Dr. Sarah Parcak and her company GlobalXplorer show how this can look like in practice. The space archaeologist uses satellite images to discover historical structures on the earth’s surface. Her images are divided into small areas. Interested helpers worldwide (the crowd) evaluate these areas online and share interesting findings with the researchers. Thanks to the hard work of many people, 17 potential pyramids, 3,100 forgotten settlements and 1,000 potentially lost tombs in Egypt have been discovered so far. An achievement that would have cost science teams several decades and large research funds in the past.

Where will all this lead us?

Archaeology is not boring! Millions of people worldwide are enthusiastic about historical films or games like Assessin’s Creed whose history corresponds (partly) to historical truths. But we still learn this history mostly from dusty books.

New technologies enable exciting synergies. When archaeologists meet game designers, anyone with an Internet connection can soon discover Mayan cities in the jungles of South America or hike through the true-to-original Valley of the Kings in Egypt. We will no longer learn from books, but on virtual class trips that appeal to all our senses and inspire us to search for more and more knowledge.

Archaeology will come to life. Howard Carter’s avatar will take us on a journey as he discovered the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. Archaeologists will be able to reconstruct the Roman Empire and guide us through it. We can get to know and respect other cultures. Ultimately this will bring us closer together as humanity and reduce our fear of new influences. A thought, which sounds like a wishful thinking especially in the present time.

Cool Stuff

An absolute technology fan is the National Geographic archaeologist Albert Lin. In his television series “Lost Cities” he takes us to some of the most exciting places in the world and shows how new technologies, especially LiDar and Augmented Reality, are setting new standards. An absolute recommendation for a cosy evening:

Several thousand offerings of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun were discovered in his tomb in 1922. His golden death mask alone is estimated to be worth several billion euros. Perhaps the most interesting piece, however, was worn by the mummified pharaoh at his side, on the journey into life after death. A 34 cm long 3,400 year old dagger in perfect condition. For years, archaeologists* were puzzled by how the Egyptians were able to forge the iron — long before a time when this was technically possible in Egypt. Additionally, iron was 10 times more valuable than gold. The geochemist Albert Jambon now solved this riddle. Analysis of the components of iron suggests that Tutankhamun’s dagger is one of the rarest weapons in the world. The iron probably comes from a meteorite. A divine weapon for a divine ruler.

Sources

Archaeology
Technology
Lidar
Photogrammetry
Future

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Thilo Schinke

Written by Thilo Schinke

21 Followers

8+ years Product Manager. Future enthusiast. Passionate traveller. Based in Potsdam/Berlin.

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