Sarah Parcak

Parcak was born in Bangor, Maine, and received her bachelor's degree in Egyptology and Archaeological Studies from Yale University in 2001, and her PhD from the University of Cambridge. She is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); prior to that she was a teacher of Egyptian art and history at the University of Wales, Swansea.^[3][4]

During her undergraduate studies at Yale University, Parcak participated in her first of many digs in Egypt as well as a remote sensing course.^[5]

From 2003 to 2004, Parcak used satellite images and surface surveys to detect potential sites of archaeological interest, some dating back to 3000 BC.^[6] Parcak's work consisted of detecting minute differences in topography, geology and plant life to explore sites from a variety of cultures. Satellites capable of detecting infrared wavelengths are sometimes able to distinguish differences in plant's chlorophyll, which can sometimes distinguish plants that grow over very shallow buried structures.^[5]

In partnership with her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, she directs Survey and Excavation Projects in the Fayoum and Egypt's East Delta. They used satellite imagery to look for water sources and archaeological sites.^[6][7] According to Parcak, this approach might reduce time and cost for determining archaeological sites compared to surface detection.^[8]

In 2007, she founded the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.^[1][7]

In 2009, her book Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology was published by Routledge, describing the methodology of satellite archaeology.^[2] A review in Antiquity described it as focusing "more on technical methodology than interpretation and analysis," described Parcak's work as, "written in a lively style that makes a highly technical subject accessible to a general audience," and concluded that it was "a good introduction for undergraduate students of archaeology, anthropology and geography."^[9]

Parcak won theTED Prize for 2016.^[10]

In 2016, she was the recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the History category.^[11] The same year, using satellite images Parcak claimed to have potentially found the second-known Viking site in North America located at Point Rosee in Newfoundland. Upon subsequent ground investigation, no evidence of a Viking site or anything of archeological significance was found.

Her book Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past was published in July 2019^[12] and won the Archaeological Institute of America Felicia A. Holton Book Award in 2022.^[13]

In 2020, she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2020 Fellowship.^[14]

Parcak documented tombs at Lisht, many of which had not been recorded in detail.^[15]

Parcak identified and mapped a feature at Petra in Jordan.^[16]

In May 2011, BBC News announced that Parcak and her team used infrared satellite imagery to identify 17 buried pyramids, 1,000 tombs and 3,100 settlements, including the city of Tanis in Egypt.^[17][18] Parcak later described the pyramids as potential pyramids.^[16] No article on this claim has ever been published and 15 of the 17 pyramids were never verified. One of the 17 potential pyramids was excavated by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and was found to be a natural mound and one was found to be , potentially, a pyramid.^[16] A third pyramid was the Pepi II pyramid which was discovered in 1926 and is visible using high resolution imagery due to the fact it's partially exposed.^{[19][20] [21][22]}.

Tanis has been excavated since 1836, not discovered in 2011 as was reported by BBC. Parcak produced a detailed map of the city. ^[16][23]

Parcak published a study on archaeological site damage and looting in Egypt based on satellite imagery. She argued that looting increased significantly between 2002 and 2013 during the Egyptian revolution when guards left their posts.^[24] That was challenged in the same journal by Egyptologists who argued that aspects of its framing and categorization of damage were potentially "misleading" or "overstated".^[25]

Remote sensing experts raised questions regarding detectability of buried structures using thermal infrared satellite imagery. Thermal sensors measure only the surface or "skin" radiance and emissive signals from buried structures attenuate rapidly with depth. This is especially true in Nile Valley soils which are saline and waterlogged, thus greatly limited for heat transfer. ^[26]

Soil temperature variations of buried structures decreases exponentially with depth thus limiting the ability to detect buried objects to 8-14 cm according to Parcak, yet she claimed pyramids during much deeper were detectable using thermal infrared imagery.^[27] claimed 17 pyramids were detected using thermal infrared imagery.^[27]Therefore, a pyramid would be undetectable. In addition, moisture from mud-brick pyramids is unable to wick to the surface through several meters of sand and silt. The Nile Valley is a notoriously difficult and "noisy" environment to perform remote sensing in due to salt, water logging and 7,000 years of agriculture. Therefore, it is prone to false positives and misinterpretation. Nothing was published on the pyramid project making her discovery claim impossible to replicate. ^[28]

In May 2012, she was the subject of a half-hour program on CNN's The Next List which profiles innovators "who are setting trends and making strides in various fields."^[29][30]

She was the focus of "Rome's Lost Empire", a TV documentary by Dan Snow, first shown on BBC One^[31] on 9 December 2012. She identified possible sites in Romania, Nabataea, Tunisia, and Italy, including the arena at Portus, the lighthouse and a canal to Rome beside the river Tiber.^[32]

A BBC co-production with PBS, NOVA/WGBH Boston and French Television, Vikings Unearthed (first broadcast April 4, 2016) documented her use of satellite imagery to detect possible remains of a Norse / Viking presence at Point Rosee, Newfoundland. In 2015, Parcak stated that remains were likely a "turf wall and roasted bog" iron ore; however, an excavation conducted in 2016 proved that the "turf wall and accumulation of bog iron ore" were actually natural features.^[33][34]

Sarah Parcak used the TED Prize money for a crowd-sourced quest.^[35] Satellite imagery was used to identify sites in Peru. crowdsourcing .^[5] Of the thousands of sites identified by the volunteers, most were already known by Peru's Ministry of Culture. No known articles in refereed journals were published on the study. GlobalXplorer Phase 2 was to take place in India starting in 2019. However, it stalled and is not active. The GlobalXplorer website became inactive in 2023.

In September 2020, Parcak's employer, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, issued a statement saying that tweets by Parcak aimed toward supporters of then-president Donald Trump following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed poor judgement and did not reflect the opinions of the university.^[36]

After Rush Limbaugh's death in 2021, Parcak tweeted that she hoped Limbaugh "suffered until his last breath". The tweet was protected under the first amendment according to the ACLU of University of Alabama in spite of calls to terminate her position as a professor.^[37] She also tweeted that historic monuments in Birmingham should be toppled.^[38]

• Satellite Remote Sensing for Archeology (2009)
• Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past (2019)