Can satellites really find lost Viking settlements? In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan dig into "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak, following her satellite search for Norse sites along the coast of North America and Newfoundland. They unpack how buried turf longhouses reveal themselves from orbit through subtle changes in vegetation, why North American archaeology is worlds apart from Egyptology, and how a dig that "fails" can still be a scientific win.

A must-listen for anyone curious about space archaeology, satellite remote sensing, and the Norse exploration of the Americas.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

- Hunting lost Norse (Viking) settlements in Newfoundland and along the North American coast with satellite imagery and remote sensing, and why real archaeology is about everyday life, not gold or "lost cities"

- How buried turf longhouses and their outbuildings appear from space as faint vegetation and soil marks, plus pareidolia: the trap of "seeing" structures that aren't there ("a needle in a haystack made of needles")

- A what-archaeologists-actually-think moment: why a dig with no blockbuster find still counts as science, testing the method and gathering negative data is real progress (with a clarification that the book was not suggesting Vikings were vegetarians)

- Regional connection: Barbara and Tristan weighing the book's claims about fieldwork hardship against the reality of North American and Florida field conditions

ABOUT THE BOOK:

"Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past" by Dr. Sarah Parcak. Parcak is a pioneer of satellite archaeology who wrote the first textbook on the subject, a National Geographic Explorer, and a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the 2016 TED Prize winner and founder of GlobalXplorer°, a citizen-science platform that invites anyone to help spot potential archaeological sites in satellite imagery.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

- Part 1 of our Archaeology from Space series: "Space Archaeology Found 18,000 Hidden Sites" - https://youtu.be/-0QkJZfJBf4

- GlobalXplorer° - Parcak's citizen-science satellite archaeology platform: https://www.globalxplorer.org

- L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (Parks Canada) - the first known Viking site in North America: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows

- Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/

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In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan kick off their discussion of "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak, exploring how satellite imagery and remote sensing technology are transforming the way archaeologists find and study sites around the world. From Cold War spy satellites declassified in 1995 to a study estimating 18,000 unrecorded pre-Columbian sites in the Amazon basin, this episode is essential listening for anyone interested in spacearchaeology, remote sensing, and the future of archaeological discovery.

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WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

- How satellite imagery is used to identify archaeological sites, and why it's only the first step before ground truthing

- The origins of space archaeology, from WWI aerial balloons to Cold War spy satellites to modern sub-meter resolution imagery

- What archaeologists actually think about the "space archaeology" label; and why Barbara's friend had a point about GPS

- How the technology connects to everyday CRM and regional archaeology work, including a Leon County GIS example

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ABOUT THE BOOK

"Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak introduces readers to the field of satellite remote sensing in archaeology. Parcak is an Egyptologist and NASA-funded researcher who has been credited with identifying thousands of potential archaeological sites from space and has spoken widely about the technology's potential to revolutionize the field.

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RESOURCES & LINKS:

- Leon County GIS mapping tool: https://www.leoncountyfl.gov/gis

- Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/

#SpaceArchaeology #RemoteSensing #ArchaeologyBooksForFun

This is the finale of Mary Anna Evans' archaeology-themed murder mystery "Relics", and the last stretch is pure chaos with answers, motives, and a whole lot of running for your life.

In this episode, Barbara and Tristan wrap up the story with the final reveals, the fallout from the forgery scheme, and the motives behind what’s been happening in (and around) the dig. Even with all of this, we still make time to talk about real-world archaeology along the way.

Next up, we’re starting a new book: "Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes the Past" by Sarah Parcak.

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Support the show!

https://www.fpan.us/give/

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