Google Earth may expose tombs more exciting and historical than the ones in Petra shown here.
With the aid of revolutionary technology, archaeologists continue to expose exciting historical discoveries. According to The New Scientist, University of Western Australia professor David Kennedyhas utilized Google Earth in hopes of identifying archaeological sites, and he just may have stumbled across nearly two thousand potentially significant locations…
Using the satellite software from Perth, Kennedy analyzed approximately 500 square miles of the Arabian Peninsula and pinpointed 1,977 specific areas of interest, with 1,082 representing what he believes may be ancient “pendant” tombs. An associate within Saudi Arabia photographed two of the sites from the ground, and then Kennedy compared the resulting images to similar tombs in Jordan. Further site analysis is still needed from actual diggers, though, because Kennedy asserts that, “Just from Google Earth it’s impossible to know whether we have found a Bedouin structure that was made 150 years ago or 10,000 years ago.”
Archaeologists have utilized satellite imagery for years, but Google makes the practice universally and easily available. Coupled with the fact Google is publishing the Dead Sea scrolls for public consumption for the first time, a search engine may have shockingly eclipsed the standard, ancient trowel as an archaeologist’s most significant tool.
