Thousands of years into our own history and discover what otherwise be completely invisible to us. Sarah has worked on five continents and over 20 years of experience in anthropology. National geographic explorer as well. Ancient egypt rome and the vikings and she at a 2014 senior fellow and the winner of the 2016 that price. She at joined by an astronomer. Stars influence a planets suitability as for hopes of alien live. She at also an artist and worked in a variety of media. Welcome to both of you. [applause]. Sarah thank you everybody for coming. Will you talk to the space archaeologist person. I was like well [laughter] i guess we talked a little bit backstage in a kind of wanted to kick off just by talking about first of all, congratulate sarah on her cook. [applause] has anyone here read it so far. I see at least one copy here doctor way. I have partially read it. I wanted to hear a little bit about how the cook came around. The American Writers Museum and i thought it would be fun about space and archaeology and writing. It all started in 2016, shortly after i had won a prize, my tv agent had been coaxing me for a while and say you should really write a cook. I move authors and i thought i knew better than to write a cook. When i find the time. I have young child and a big platform, i dont know about writing a cook. But now im thinking its time. I have written an academic cook. That seems much easier than writing a cook for the general public. I can give it our talk and i can give lectures, just writing something, 80 thoughts and words that people would actually want to read. I joked that if you have trouble sleeping at night you should buy my textbook. Just read the first few pages of the third chapter and if they are not asleep, you must be a specialist. In the process of thinking about the proposal and thinking through all of the books that were out there for the general public about archaeology first of all, there really arent popular books about archaeology or archaeology by women. I think in academia right now we are having a bit of a moment. For women and people of color in making this to me at incredibly important. So the idea i could write something and show people that not only can i do it, but it at necessary. We need to provide these opportunities. Not just storytellers. Archaeology at one stone at a stone and two stones at a feature in three stones make a wall. And if you combine forces together, you probably found a templin. Thats a joke in the archaeology world. This at what has really drove me to write the cook. I think this at something that people dont think about in science that one data. At a potentially interesting discovery into his line its no error bars and three at definitely a line and like for his totally a trend. In the universe. [laughter] there at a certain element of storytelling that comes its it as well. It might be helpful and i am not totally sure everyone at familiar its this one at exactly different about the archaeology that you do and what space archaeologist do. It might be helpful to give a recap of that. Sarah we spent a lot of time looking for things. Were assisted by a lot of tools on the ground to help us see beneath the ground. When we are dealing its a massive landscape, prior to area photography and satellites, its really hard to figure out where things were. So the field of space archaeology at the use of different kinds of satellite sensors and airbase sensors to map and model ancient landscape. Think of it almost like a space stage cant scan system where you have varied features and sometimes very things like pyramids and houses and the stones in the materials that are under the ground, affect the overlay vegetation and soil and very subtle ways that we cant see its our naked human eye. When the satellites regarding all of this information in different parts of the light spectrum that we cant see and reprocess it by using algorithms and all of a sudden these features pop out in the landscape. Instead of being able to map a survey, ten flights or 15 flights over the course of the season, we move exactly where to go. We can find hundreds if not thousands of sites very quickly. But archaeology, its not about finding its about finding out. We do at we ask science hypothesis driven research. How and why did civilization and driver collapse. How or why did the city grown in importance and all of a sudden it wasnt important. Maybe its because the river changed course and all of a sudden the city lost main transportation. These are the types of things we look for using salad satellite imagery. We move exactly where to go. Talk to me a little bit about what they are actually data looks like. So this at essentially digital photography in the same way that astronomy people have that picture which if you come to the effort you can come to see a whole bunch of telescopes that you can look through and see what they look like. Nowadays, telcos have the telescopes that professional astronomers use, most of the time like my job looks like me in front of a laptop. When people want to come and interview me, they are asking i am doing anything cool today. But it just looks like me in front of the laptop. Affect [laughter] its not, to me its really exciting. Most scientists spend long time writing grants and writing reports anytime we do science, at really exciting. But it doesnt look exciting. And archaeology we go from the known to the unknown. Whenever, some people think that i have a magical harry potter wand. And i way that over a satellite imagery and the ghostly outlines just appear. That is there in three d. Maybe that goes on in my head but that is absolutely not have the signs happens. So we do if we are looking at particular landscape say egypt. And working in an area like saqqara, lots of pyramids from over two thoughts and years. We develop databases of all the known archaeological sites and features in that area. Where ever in the world we are working. Then we start looking at the landscape the geology. At it sand, at a part of the floodplain, at a hilly, or any kind of elevations. One of the sizes and shapes and orientations of all of the features that are there. What pyramids and temples and segments are there. We start looking at all the pictures of everything that is there. This at before we even order the satellite imagery. You have to move what they are looking at, you have to move if there any hands underneath the ground that is really easy to get things wrong. I hope i am pretty honest in the cook about times when i was wrong. This could be honest about science. Science at a long process of failure in an iteration in repeating and helping you get something right. One out of a thoughts and times if they are lucky. So when they are processing the imagery, its in phases, so you are doing work and they are teasing that information very slowly its different kinds of algorithms and finding that you might find a hint of an outline of a shape. Then you really focus in on that area. We find something that works, you extrapolate and you apply it to a larger part of the image. By the way i should say this at a super collaborative project. I am Never Working by myself. I voice collaborating its my friends and colleagues in egypt are scotland or iceland or and we are constantly sharing information. There at never a figueroa archaeologist. I am always part of a team. Give or take an Indiana Jones and a leather jacket. This at the part i am very jealous of. You actually get to go to the place that the thing you are looking at at. And you get it to check it out. Its really not an option for me. [laughter] i guess id like to move a little bit about the process of that print you do a lot of this recon and the images that you have. You actually ordered new data, new satellite images to be taken. At one point do you actually get to go there. Are there places that you get to go and we do find out if they are wrong. [laughter]. Sarah usually what we do by this collaborative process, from working its my team called global export, we will all look at imagery and crosscheck each other and come up its a top ten list. Other interesting things that look like features that are known or estimated already and we will send them to specialist. Lets just say, at in place like scotland, so we send them off to specialist and viking. And no write back and say features one and eight and ten look amazing. I do not move what they are smoking we do are looking at two or three. Its like nothing that is there. I think these three things are definitely worth checking out and honestly i go its eight. That looks the best to us. So we rely very heavily on the specialists of the region. Obviously its a little different when i am working in other parts of the world i really do rely on other experts. Then sometimes it can be pretty quick if we are already collaborating and we are in a move to a particular place of the for the next month or six months. And will go. In egypt the process a little bit different. Ive been working at the same site its called a list and at very old and been working there since 2015. We started our funding process before our season begins. I work its a very kind production of the egyptian government. Theyre very strict rules and regulations about ron that process. We have to tell them exactly where we are going. Im very lucky and fortunate that i get to travel all over the world. Were wrapping up a project in peru and getting ready to go to india. I joke its people in the middle of the winter that i definitely dream of doing some projects in fiji. Who knows maybe i will work there someday. You will get no sympathy for getting out of alabama and going to chicago in the winter. [laughter]. Allison talk about global explorer. Sarah one of the Big Questions we have in archaeology versus how many sites are out there lift to find. Also how do you think or how can we create sort of a more equitable world for expiration and right now to specialize to be able to access the data. Theres a couple of hundred or eight i dont know how many people there are who specialize in what i do but if i decided to set up global exposure which at a citizen platform which allows anyone to find ancient sites because there are only so many of us. Most governments around the world dont have databases of archaeological sites. How many flaws are there or particulars be species. If you were back in our and ours archaeological no archaeologist would be able to answer how many sites there are. You create a platforming and you allow to look and work much faster and more efficiently and most of the time when im looking at imagery, im just looking and looking and looking and looking and not finding anything. So its global explorer, today i think its animals 90 thoughts and users from a hundred and 20 countries and they have found over 20 thoughts and potential archaeological features in peru, and about 700 of them have been determined by experts to be major sites. Allison this at amazing. Citizen science, have you heard this before . Thats kind of the phrase for all of this exploration of what otherwise be technical data that is generally speaking historically been very accessible to people who dont have some kind of Technical Training whether it at in archaeology or whether it at in astronomy. One of the things that we do at the embers we something called universe. This wasnt project that started at something called galaxy zoo just about a decade or more now. There were all of these images of galaxies in big collections of billions of stars out in space and people were interested in exploring them but its a big task to take all of these images and go through and take them and label them as to what kind of galaxy there are rated so this Online Platform database based started much in the same way they are describing its global, one of the things i think has been really interesting about that is nowadays the universe hosts like tons of stuff. I dont think we have our catalog archaeology specifically but we do have old whether where you look at ship logs me that. Our snapshots of animals. Count the number of penguins in this image. In addition, ruppercaseletter where we look for planets around other stars. People who are not astronomers who dont generally speak or have the ability to write a program that i would if i were interacting its the data, have done things like find new planets around the other stars that were discovered by people in its professional astronomy training. Its amazing to find this Expiration Date micro site in that way. Archaeology for some people are at hard it can be expensive to get other places. It at an incredibly big field if you are able bodied to go it can be really hard. Especially since having a child i see where you are naturally born explorers. They questioned when we launch global explorers at can we truly demark wrote archaeology, we just didnt want to date someone fun for kids. We wanted something that would work at that archaeologist could work use and generate important data. Also allow people to deal its the science that i and my colleagues do. To design things and plant an Important Role in creating a platform before we began element its, we spent about six months speaking to people behind the platforms and we spent a lot of time to people of all ages and backgrounds by the types of things that they wanted to see. An platform like this. We had users as young as four and five. We had kids as old as in the 90s. And older. The idea that weve developed something for everyone that people feel really connected to at very important to me. Also we have now because we are really developing the platform, we hope it will be open next year, we got feedback from the many of hundreds of people about things they liked and the like. Were taking all of that in incorporating and that in how we are developing it. Making it a better experience for everyone. Allison have there been examples that experts have missed. Sarah there at been one case and my favorite, focused on an area in peru which at very famous that is massive juleps that monkeys and birds and butterflies that the notes give people carved into the landscape and its kind of debated as to what their purpose was in archaeology. We say its for ritual purposes. [laughter] clearly very important to those people. Our citizens scientists found many dozens of new potential sites. Then we share them its my dear friend who has just been named that an minister of culture in peru. He then took the data and went out and was doing drone mapping. He at a side result of mapping these two sites, ended up finding 15 new things. This data can be taken and given and help empower local archaeologist to me at just an extension of citizen archaeology. We give people on the ground who move best, tools that they need that they might not otherwise have access to. Allison we are kind of seeing this moment in academia which i think at happening to some extent everywhere kind of leveling the playing fields. Space being made for people have been excluded traditionally from some of these practices. Its really been encouraging for me to see the emphasis on collaboration. It exists in both of our fields where this lone genius at next. You look at einstein or maybe ill pick a fictional character doc brown from back to the future. This often who they picture when they picture an astronomy astronomer and they also picture Indiana Jones. Its been really gratifying to me to see the way that the teamwork at becoming more part of the fee narrative. Thats how it ends. Even any of these socalled famous lone geniuses who are from history and a body of colleagues that they were talking to. I often get asked. Sarah people think i have a harry potter wand. The reality at that i am a combination of manager and ceo and diplomat and food planner and nurse. It at my job to make sure that my team which at composed of about 100 egyptians and foreigners are able to do their jobs really really well. I run a joint mission its i have equal amount of egyptians and participants. Ive been a codirector, i have a staff that work its probably about 60 to 70 local workmen intimate the workman at throwing up the buckets its sand at ever bread at important as a senior professor specialist who has written 100 articles in a particular subject. Everyone plays a crucial role in our kindle colleges havent done as good of a job celebrating the whole workforce. Frankly we can do it that went out them. And my job i just go around to make sure my team has coffee and snacks, i make sure that when the ceramic team as well as glue, i move so that they can get glue and then they do the job really well. At that in the day, i am responsible for my team his health and safety and wellbeing. The egyptian workforce and the foreign work force. And i am response will to the Us Government who has helped fund my project. At my job to help keep things moving. My husband who at also an archaeologist. He used to run projects and now i do. My job at also to make sure he at happy excavating for years and years he had the hat that i were now. And i appreciate it so much more its really hard work. Its not usually fun but at the end of the day, every now and again i get stick my trial in the ground and remember what its like before i was responsible. Thats a good reminder. Allison my version at that i get to write a couple of lines of codes. Indiana jones at also at giving out snacks and coffee. To equalize and demark right but democratize this period were often caught up in the terrible things that the internet has brought. [laughter] he really at something that i think wouldnt have been possible that went out the, i wonder if we can talk about the history of Remote Sensing. Once upon a time it was him. Canisters of film. Sarah so the first Remote Sensing of an archaeology site happened around 1908 around stonehenge. That was the first one. British lieutenant camera on a balloon and took pictures on stonehenge and when he noticed was standing in the field and on the site and archaeologist looked at that and said wait a minute, this could be like varied features. So over time, the field developed and world war i people taking pictures of archaeologists sort of in the nascent royal air force. They went out its their camp hobby cameras and took pictures of this. They show them to their captains. They said you can take pictures quest mark of things from airplanes . We could use this to spite on the bad guys for the people they said to her the bad guys. So its ironic, archaeology actually started in the field recounted since in the military. That kind of slipped around someone of the main data steps that we use now, at something called corona height spy photography. In the 1960s. In the cold war and its important to us because it preserves landscape that are no longer around. A lot of archaeologists are look using the data in addition to satellites. Be one private historical connection to corona and we both have familiar connections that brought us into doing what we do. I often think its ironic when people talk about the new era of private industry going into space