Archaeology From Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past by Sarah Parcak

"Empires fall but people rise."~ from Archeology From Space by Sarah Parcak

Perhaps it was the old National Geographics that Dad kept in the basement on a shelf, ordered by month and year. When I was bored I would go down and grab a dozen to read. I loved articles about Egypt and the evolution of mankind.

Or perhaps it was the big Time-Life book about early humans in the living room magazine rack. Or Gods, Graves, and Scholars which I read over and over as a teen.

By the time I took anthropology classes at college I was already long interested in humanity's distant past. I still enjoy reading articles about the latest finds and discoveries.

For Sarah Parcak, Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark fired her imagination. When she met Harrison Ford she brandished her fedora. (Hopefully, she never stapled it to her head to keep it on like Ford had to while filming!)

Parcak's grandfather was a WWII veteran of the 101st Airborne Division with a Ph.D. in forestry. He used aerial photography in his research.

Now Parcak is an archaeologist like Indy and uses space shots of Earth in her research. Archaeology from Space is the exciting story of how this cutting-edge technique helped her to discover thousands of previously unknown archeological sites, leading to new understandings of who we are by studying who we have been in the past.

I was enthralled by Parcak's imagining the life of an ancient Egyptian woman, spinning her story out of the excavated bones found at Tell Ibrahim Awad in Egypt.

She tells of the ups and downs of Egyptian empires to show how resilient humans are noting, "We've survived for over 200,000 years, and that's a decent track record." Yes, climate change is going to bring unimaginable challenges and disasters, but humans will survive.

Understanding how we have survived in the past helps us to understand--and affirm--our strengths. But sadly, looting has destroyed unstudied archeological sites all over the world. She describes landscapes littered with bones, mummy linens, and shards. The looted artifacts are sold online. Even the Christian founder of the craft and decor chain Hobby Lobby knowingly purchases stolen artifacts.

Parcak predicts all sites will be looted by mid-century. It is imperative to protect them. Her winning TED mission statement led to her creation of GlobalXplorer which gives the public a chance to participate in the important work of identifying unknown archeological sites using satellite imagery.

This is more than a book about digging around for the past; it's about the challenges of being a woman in archeology, envisioning new technologies, and how humans can use to past to better face the future.

I received a book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.

Archeology From Space
by Sarah Parcak
Henry Holt
Publication July 2019
$28 hardcover
ISBN: 978-1250198280