Armchair archaeologist finds Saudi Arabia's archaeological sites using Google Earth
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
Armchair archaeologist finds Saudi Arabia's archaeological sites
using Google Earth
Monday, February 7, 2011
Aussie desktop archaeologist's major Saudi sighting
Asher Moses
February 7, 2011 - 11:03AM
http://images.smh.com.au/2011/02/07/2170910/googleearthsaudimain-420x0.jpg
Google Earth screenshots showing some of Professor David Kennedy's
finds.
An Australian archaeologist working from his armchair in Perth has
unearthed almost two thousand potential archaeological sites in Saudi
Arabia.
Far and away from the Indiana Jones-style imagery archaeologists
inspire, high resolution photography is allowing researchers to
unearth world-changing discoveries using little more than Google
Maps.
Professor David Kennedy, from the University of Western Australia,
has never visited Saudi Arabia but scanned 1240 square kilometres of
the country using Google Earth and found 1977 potential
archaeological sites. This included 1082 ancient tombs shaped like
tear drops.
Kennedy was able to confirm the legitimacy of two of the finds by
asking a friend in Saudi Arabia to drive out to the sites and
photograph them. He believes they may be up to 9000 years old.
In a similar instance in 2008, a PhD student at La Trobe University
in Melbourne uncovered hundreds of previously unknown sites
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/afghan-secrets-revealed-on-google-earth/2008/07/18/1216163136557.html
in Afghanistan using Google Earth. Like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan
can present hostile challenges to researchers and the online mapping
service provides a safe way to explore the country.
"Saudi Arabia has a rich archaeological heritage but it is relatively
poorly recorded and understood," said Kennedy in an email interview.
"The extensive remains of great prehistoric cemeteries in such places
as Yabrin in the interior have been known for many years but little-
explored. More widely, extensive and numerous ruins are known in many
areas but seldom recorded even superficially."
Kennedy told New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/02/giant-archaeological-trove-fou.html
that Saudi Arabia was "not the easiest country to break into" and it
was difficult to even fly over the nation - but he said Google Earth
"can outflank them".
In his paper on the find, published in the Journal of Archaeological
Science, Kennedy writes: "It is readily apparent that the use of GE
[Google Earth] for the prospection and identification of sites has
great potential when dealing with a huge area that is otherwise
largely inaccessible on the ground."
However, further ground verification is needed to confirm the
significance of the sites.
"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," Kennedy told New Scientist.
In the journal paper Kennedy said initial investigations revealed
most of the discoveries were "pre-Islamic". It is thought that the
Islamic regime in Saudi Arabia is hostile to archaeology because it
may focus attention on pre-Islamic civilisations there.
Kennedy did not express a view on this but said Saudi Arabia was one
of the least explored countries archaeologically.
"Saudi Arabia covers 2.15 million sq km - twice the size of the UK,
France and Germany together," Kennedy writes in the paper. "On the
other hand, it is one of the least explored countries
archaeologically."
Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that 90 per cent of the
archaeological treasures in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina had
been destroyed to make way for hotels, apartment blocks and parking
facilities. Last year, Saudi clerics reportedly renewed long-standing
calls for the demolition of several historic Islamic sites.
In 2008
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/25/1206207065556.html
and 2009
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/google-dreaming-lead-to-ancient-crater-20091227-lg9e.html
other Google Maps researchers discovered rare meteorite impact
craters
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/google-dreaming-lead-to-ancient-crater-20091227-lg9e.html
in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
In 2008, a Western Australia man said he felt like Charles Darwin
after discovering - via Google Earth - an extensive formation of
fringing coral reefs just west of the Kimberley.
In 2007 Google Maps revealed an aerial image of a US nuclear-powered
submarine
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/04/1188783202402.html?page=fullpage
and, separately, evidence of China'snuclear submarine capability
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/12/1191696145980.html?page=fullpage
.
In 2006 an Australian granny living in a small Canadian prairie town
discovered an intriguing rock formation
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/grans-canyon-sensation/2006/11/13/1163266420400.html
that looks like an iPod-wearing native American.
But while Google Maps has been a boon for academics, it's also caused
international conflicts with Nicaraguan troops blaming a Google Maps
error
for them invading Costa Rica in November last year. Other errors
have created tensions
between Morocco and Spain.
In December last year the Iranian government was reportedly furious
after Google Maps satellite images revealed a Star of David painted
on he roof of the Iran Air headquarters.
Google Earth finds Saudi Arabia's forbidden archaeological secrets An
armchair archaeologist has identified nearly 2,000 potentially
important sites in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth, despite never
having visited the country.
By Praveen Swami
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/praveen-swami/
4:43 pm UTC 04 Feb 2011
David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the
University of Western Australia, used Google Earth satellite maps to
pinpoint 1,977 potential archaeological sites, including 1,082
teardrop shaped stone tombs.
"I've never been to Saudi Arabia
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia
," Dr Kennedy said. "It's not the easiest country to break into."
Dr Kennedy told New Scientist that he had verified the images showed
actual archaeological sites by asking a friend working in the Kingdom
to photograph the locations.
The use of aerial and satellite imaging has been used in Britain to
locate Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, as well as Nazca lines in
Peru and Mayan ruins in Belize.
But few archaeologists have been given access to Saudi Arabia, which
has long been hostile to the discipline. Hardline clerics in the
kingdom fear that it might focus attention on the civilisations which
flourished there before the rise of Islam -- and thus, in the long
term, undermine the state religion.
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In 1994, a council of Saudi clerics was reported to have issued an
edict asserting that preserving historical sites "could lead to
polytheism and idolatry" -- both punishable, under the Kingdom's laws,
by death.
Saudi Arabia's rulers have, in recent years, allowed archaeologists
to excavate some sites, including the spectacular but little-known
ruins of Maidan Saleh, a 2,000 old city which marked the southern
limits of the powerful Nabataean civilisation.
For the most part, though, access to ancient sites has been severely
restricted.
End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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