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2000 archaeological sites discovered thanks to Google Earth

by Tug Agency | 07.02.2011
Thanks to Google Earth an Australian archaeologist has been able to locate about 2,000 new sites in Saudi Arabia. He realized that using Google Earth could be the easiest way to avoid political barriers such as licenses and travel costs.

Archaeologists have been adding mobile and web technologies to their toolkit for some years now, but this discovery is truly amazing just for how it was achieved. Could Google Earth and complementary programs return archeology to its golden age?

David Kennedy from the University of Western Australia, has scanned about 2,000 square kilometers thanks to Google’s satellite tool. He identified  1977 potential new sites, and then asked friends in the field who were close to each one of the places to take photographs to determine whether they had been created by humans.

From all of his discoveries, 1,082 are rock tombs carved in teardrop shape from the ancient Arabia.