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/

#archaeologybooksforfun #ArchaeologyFromSpace #Vikings

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!

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This episode pulls back the curtain on an artifact forgery scheme in "Relics: A Faye Longchamp Mystery" by Mary Anna Evans; and suddenly a lot of earlier “weird stuff” starts to make sense.

Barbara and Tristan unpack another mysterious death, a forgery ring moving fake antiquities, and a little relationship drama. Was it murder? Who’s behind the fakes? And has Joe finally found love?

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Episode 1 of "Relics"

https://youtu.be/XzFBWgl7jvI

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Support the show!

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

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Destroying an artifact will do it, especially on an archaeological dig.

In this episode, Barbara and Tristan continue "Relics" by Mary Anna Evans (Ch. 11–13), an archaeology-themed murder mystery. The mystery keeps building, the fieldwork drama escalates, and we break down the real-world archaeology and crew dynamics behind what’s happening on the page; all while puzzling our way through a story with genuinely fun characters.

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Was it a murder, or an accident? In part 2 (Ch. 6-10) of Mary Anna Evans' archaeology murder mystery "Relics" kicks off the mystery, while still giving Barbara and Tristan plenty of archaeology to dig into along the way.

After a near-disaster of a date and a deadly bunkhouse fire, Faye finds yet another disaster in the “excavation” work done so far.

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"Relics" by Mary Anna Evans is an archaeology-themed murder mystery, and we’re reading Chapters 1-5.

What do “buffalo wallows” have to do with archaeology? Unfortunately… more than they should in this episode. We're kicking off the archaeology-themed murder mystery "Relics" by Mary Anna Evans (Ch. 1–5) and, even though nobody dies (yet), an archaeological site has still been murdered.

Archaeologists Barbara and Tristan talk about why no excavation should ever be described as a “buffalo wallow,” a few modern trends in community archaeology, and the realities of working under an archaeologist who shouldn’t be making decisions. The early mystery setup had us so hooked we briefly forgot we’re reading a murder mystery.

In part 2, we’ll continue the story and see what kind of “murder” shows up first.

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Catch up on the first book:

"Artifacts" Episode 1: https://youtu.be/TZro0WllkrU

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Ancient horse history and archaeology: how horses spread across the ancient world, by sea to Japan, the Americas, Australasia, and even (briefly) Antarctica.

With one boat, one horse, two rowers. Not the most efficient, but it was the best choice at the time.

In this final Hoof Beats episode, Barbara and Tristan bring the story of humans and horses to the present. We cover how horses reached every continent, how different cultures adopted and adapted them, the huge cultural impacts, and Indigenous horse cultures in the Americas and Australasia. We also look at how steam power and later gas-powered transport reshaped horses’ roles.

Next up: Mary Anna Evans’ Relics.

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