Satellites spy thousands of ancient human settlements (approx 9,500 of them)

Satellites spy thousands of ancient human settlements

Ancient humans have changed the landscape around their settlements in such ways that even today archaeologists can distinguish between "lived in" spots and those never occupied by humans.

Now, two scientists have figured out a more efficient way of locating these sites, via their footprints, from space.

The scientists relied on two distinct features of ancient settlements in the Near East: soils altered by human activity and little hills that formed over time as residents successively built on top of older structures. By examining satellite images for these two features, they have found evidence of about 9,500 possible human settlements across an area of 8,880 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) in northern Mesopotamia, located in the northeast of modern Syria.


Read more: www.foxnews.com...

So 2 scientists have figured out how to better locate lost cities by comparing features. This ranks up there with the new tech that allows a satellite to see past the trees / fauna / etc in South America. That system has located a few lost cities. It allows the scientists to essentially see how big the city was, reducing the exploration / studying time frame from years to months.

Pretty cool..

Now if we can just get something like this for Antarctica.

in that info all i gathered from it was ground penetrating radar
to see what syria is hiding under ground.

i do think its cool how we can see parts of
our past through the use of a satellite.

o im sure they have checked out antarctica.
or the russians got lucky

with all the people going hungry and in need of medical treatment they cant afford why are they spending billion's on sh1t like this and even worse wars!

Originally posted by haven123
with all the people going hungry and in need of medical treatment they cant afford why are they spending billion's on sh1t like this and even worse wars!

edit on 20-3-2012 by haven123 because: (no reason given)

Understanding human history is just about as important as medical science as it gives insight to what created/destroyed past civilizations on Earth.

Not really going to comment on the war issue.

But I do believe this is good news.

Originally posted by haven123
with all the people going hungry and in need of medical treatment they cant afford why are they spending billion's on sh1t like this and even worse wars!

edit on 20-3-2012 by haven123 because: (no reason given)

I often wonder the same thing but as the person above pointed out that is a good thing. One thing one should look at is all these game shows giving away a million dollars+ to one person; instead of using it to help those who REALLY need it so I say science is okay but humanity in their need of entertainment kind of mess it up a bit.

If you read the article it shows that the guy who made the discovery was using technology and data that had already been used. He just re-used the data with better software filters.

Having done ground level archaeology survey work in northern Syria - damn there system is a lot better than by thirty-year old range rover and on foot. However it probably wouldn't detect smaller mounds and lone boys

The article headline is also a gross over-statement. He used software to identify a possible 9,500 sites, as of which none have been confirmed on the ground. I've read over on Physorg the software also looks at things like confluence of rivers as potential settlement sites, since historically that's where humans have settled, but the software never actually identified actual settlement sites (beyond the obvious ones) - only the likeliest places where settlement could occur.

Thanks Xcathrda. Talk about a story to fire the imagination and real hope for discovery. I suppose it's too much to hope that we find a cheat to jump right to examples of the true ancient ruins I believe are there...but this is exciting for exploring our past, heading back to those times. SO MANY.....there must be some in there with real treasures to find. I'm thinking about things like the metal sheets containing the religious texts people are still finding in Israel. There MUST be things like that to have survived and laying buried..... So many places to look..what are the odds?

If only they could find just one set of 'Encyclopedia Antiquity' to give us a real picture of what life was in the days of whatever ruins we're looking at. Just one...

I want pics

EDIT: Nevermind, found them.