Sarah Parcak: Hunting for Peru's lost civilizations -- with satellites
Sarah Parcak: À la recherche des civilisations perdues du Pérou... avec des satellites
Like a modern-day Indiana Jones, Sarah Parcak uses satellite images to locate lost ancient sites. The winner of the 2016 TED Prize, her wish is to protect the world’s shared cultural heritage. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
est parti en expédition
set out from his rainforest camp
en haut d'une colline escarpée
the dense rainforest foliage
de la forêt tropicale
maze of structures
de structures labyrinthiques
à être financé par National Geographic,
by National Geographic,
of its magazine in 1912.
en 1912.
photography equipment
du matériel photo de pointe
avec moi,
on an incredible journey with me,
de 37 ans.
qu'utiliser une technologie de pointe
than use state-of-the-art technology
avec Hiram Bingham,
plus ouverte, plus inclusive,
more open, inclusive,
not previously possible.
la plateforme TED Prize 2016
the 2016 TED Prize platform
Hiram Bingham's impossible dream
de Hiram Bingham
en un futur extraordinaire
de figures humaines.
of human figures.
avec quelques organismes incroyables,
with some incredible organizations,
le plus grand fournisseur mondial
the world's largest provider
à usage commercial.
commercial satellite imagery.
leur super plateforme participative.
platform they have.
and search for the airplane.
et de la recherche de l'avion.
l'imagerie spatiale.
with the satellite imagery.
pour la formation,
with education and of course exploration.
with rich content for the platform,
du contenu crucial pour la plateforme,
que vous avez pu voir plus tôt,
like you saw at the beginning of this talk
à construire la plateforme,
to build and plan the platform,
une partie des images spatiales.
at some of the satellite imagery.
avec une précision de 0,3 m.
is 0.3-meter data.
au nord du Pérou.
in northern Peru.
mais zoomons plus.
but let's zoom in.
auxquelles vous aurez accès.
that you all will get to see.
les structures et bâtiments.
individual buildings.
des sites jusqu'ici inconnus.
to find previously unknown sites.
que grâce à la plateforme,
is that as part of the platform,
de milliers de sites inconnus,
thousands of previously unknown sites,
à découvrir des sites largement pillés,
to uncover large-scale looting at sites,
c'est que toutes ces données
is that all of this data
with archaeologists on the front lines
qui sont sur le terrain
meeting with their Minister of Culture
pour rencontrer le ministre de la culture
étroitement avec eux.
et en espagnol,
in both English and Spanish,
pour s'assurer
Latin America can participate.
et en Amérique latine puissent participer.
is the gentleman you see here,
est ce monsieur que vous voyez ici,
et ancien ministre adjoint,
and former vice-minister,
et fournir aux les archéologues
and share the data with archaeologists
les sites sur le terrain.
these sites on the ground.
de cartographie par drone,
drone mapping program,
derrière moi.
you can see behind me here and here.
à la plateforme,
into the platform,
les sites que vous allez aider à trouver.
some of the new sites you help find.
la communication,
with education, outreach,
pour la Préservation Durable,
Preservation Initiative,
poorest communities
les plus pauvres au monde coexistent
most well-known archaeological sites.
les plus connus.
et à l'économie moderne.
and business training.
de belles pièces artisanales
to create beautiful handicrafts
de valoriser leur patrimoine culturel
to treasure their cultural heritage
avec 24 de ces femmes
with 24 of these women
appelé Pachacamac, pas loin de Lima.
called Pachacamac, just outside Lima.
d'une inspiration incroyable,
va aider à transformer les communautés
will help us transform communities
vous allez aider à découvrir.
that you help to discover.
cette plateforme au monde,
this platform to the world,
thousands of emails
des professeurs, éducateurs, étudiants,
professors, educators, students,
sont très enthousiastes pour le projet.
who are so excited to help participate.
de nouveaux endroits à faire découvrir,
amazing places for us to help discover,
si nous allons chercher l'Atlantide,
to be looking for Atlantis,
to launch this platform.
de lancer cette plateforme.
d'ici la fin de l'année.
by the end of the year.
ces dernières semaines,
in the past few weeks are any indication,
dépassera l'imagination.
is just going to be beyond imagination.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Parcak - Satellite archaeologist + TED Prize winnerLike a modern-day Indiana Jones, Sarah Parcak uses satellite images to locate lost ancient sites. The winner of the 2016 TED Prize, her wish is to protect the world’s shared cultural heritage.
Why you should listen
There may be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of undiscovered ancient sites across the globe. Sarah Parcak wants to locate them. As a space archaeologist, she analyzes high-resolution imagery collected by satellites in order to identify subtle changes to the Earth’s surface that might signal man-made features hidden from view. A TED Senior Fellow and a National Geographic Explorer, Parcak wrote the textbook on satellite archaeology and founded the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her goal: to make the world's invisible history visible once again.
In Egypt, Parcak's techniques have helped locate 17 potential pyramids, and more than 3,100 potential forgotten settlements. She's also made discoveries in the Viking world (as seen in the PBS Nova special, Vikings Unearthed) and across the Roman Empire (as shown in the BBC documentary, Rome’s Lost Empire). Her methods also offer a new way to understand how ancient sites are being affected by looting and urban development. By satellite-mapping Egypt and comparing sites over time, Parcak has noted a 1,000 percent increase in looting since 2009. It’s likely that millions of dollars worth of artifacts are stolen each year. Parcak hopes that, through her work, unknown sites can be protected to preserve our rich, vibrant history.
As the winner of the 2016 TED Prize, Parcak asked the world to help in this important work. By building a citizen science platform for archaeology, GlobalXplorer.org, Parcak invites anyone with an internet connection to help find the next potential looting pit or unknown tomb. GlobalXplorer launched on January 30, 2017, with volunteers working together to map Peru. Other countries will follow, as the platform democratizes discovery and makes satellite-mapping rapid and cost-effective.
Sarah Parcak | Speaker | TED.com