Hi-Tech Reveals Ancient World
High-tech methods are revealing surprises, even at the most famous and
well-documented sites.
Egypt's pyramids director, Zahi Hawass, believes that decades of conventional digging has
uncovered only 30 percent of his nation's ancient monuments. Now the work Carter made
famous is being accelerated by remote sensing.
In the Nile Delta, French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio is using the global satellite
navigation system to map Cleopatra's palace submerged beneath Alexandria's murky port.
Nearly 2,000 years after her suicide by snakebite, authorities hope to reopen the site as an
underwater park.
In nearby waters, Goddio also has found Napoleon's flagship and other vessels destroyed in
1798 by British Adm. Horatio Nelson. (Descendants of Napoleon and Nelson flew in to witness
the discovery in June.)
At the Giza Plateau, archaeologists are using remote sensing and animation graphics to
map the vast public works system that supported the Pyramids' construction by 20,000 laborers
more than 4,000 years ago.
Pyramid workers typically died in their 30s, two decades earlier than royalty. Many suffered
from spinal trauma, broken bones and amputations. Some had syphilis. How do we know?
Genetic analysis and CT scans.
In Peru, U.S. pathologists using CT scans determined that the Ice Maiden, a mummy of an
Inca girl, died of a blow to the head as a human sacrifice 500 years ago rather than freezing to
death as was initially surmised.
At Angkor in Cambodia, NASA researchers using a synthetic aperture radar are mapping
1,000 temples obscured by the dense forest canopy, as well as a network of now-dry canals and
reservoirs. In 1100 A.D., the |
