Sarah Parcak facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sarah Parcak
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Parcak in 2014
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Sarah Helen Parcak
1978 (age 46–47) |
| Occupation | Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Archaeologist, Egyptologist, Remote Sensing Archaeologist |
| Spouse(s) | Greg Mumford |
| Children | son, born 2012 |
Sarah Helen Parcak is an American archaeologist and Egyptologist. She uses satellite imagery to find ancient sites in places like Egypt and Rome. She is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). There, she leads the Laboratory for Global Observation. With her husband, Greg Mumford, she works on projects in Egypt.
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Learning and Studying
Sarah Parcak was born in Bangor, Maine. She studied Egyptology and Archaeological Studies at Yale University. She earned her main degree in 2001. Later, she got her advanced degree (Ph.D.) from the University of Cambridge.
Before joining UAB, she taught about ancient Egyptian art and history. This was at the University of Wales, Swansea. While at Yale, she went on her first of many digs in Egypt. She also took a class on remote sensing. This is how scientists study things from far away, like using satellites.
Discovering Ancient Sites
From 2003 to 2004, Parcak started using satellite images. She also walked over land to find old sites. Some of these places were from as far back as 3,000 B.C. Her work involves looking for tiny changes in the land, rocks, and plants. These small differences can show where old buildings or towns are hidden underground.
Satellites can see special light called infrared. This helps them find differences in a plant's chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is what makes plants green. Plants growing over buried walls might not be as healthy. This means their chlorophyll looks different to the satellite. This helps archaeologists find hidden structures.
Working with Satellites
Sarah Parcak and her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, lead projects in Egypt. They use satellite images to find water sources and ancient sites. Parcak says this method saves time and money. It is much faster than searching for sites on the ground.
In 2007, she started the Laboratory for Global Observation at UAB. This lab uses satellite technology to study the Earth. In 2009, satellite pictures showed holes in the ground in Egypt. This was proof that looting (stealing from ancient sites) was getting worse.
Big Awards and Projects
In 2015, Sarah Parcak won the $1 million TED Prize. This award is given to people with "ideas worth spreading." In 2016, she also won an American Ingenuity Award from Smithsonian magazine.
Her team used satellites to map all of Peru. This was for a project called GlobalXplorer. It was a crowdsourcing project. This means many people online helped look at satellite images. They helped find possible new archaeological sites.
In 2020, she received a special award called a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.
TV Shows and Documentaries
Sarah Parcak has been featured in several TV documentaries. These shows explain how she uses satellites to find ancient places.
In May 2011, the BBC aired a show called Egypt's Lost Cities. It showed Parcak's team using satellite images. They looked for physical evidence in Egypt.
In May 2012, she was on CNN's The Next List. This show highlights people who are making big changes in their fields.
She was also the main focus of "Rome's Lost Empire." This TV show by Dan Snow aired in 2012. In it, she looked for possible Roman sites in different countries. These included places like Romania and Italy.
A show called Vikings Unearthed (2016) showed her work. She used satellites to look for signs of Vikings in Newfoundland, Canada. While early findings seemed promising, later digs showed that the signs were from natural processes, not Viking activity.
See also
In Spanish: Sarah Parcak para niños
