full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sarah Parcak: Archaeology from space

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I want to show you an example of how we see deritffnley using the infrared. This is a site located in the eastern Egyptian delta claeld Mendes. And the site visibly aarppes brown, but when we use the infrared and we process it, all of the sudden, using false color, the site appears as bright pink. What you are seeing are the auatcl chemical changes to the landscape caused by the building materials and avteciiits of the ancient Egyptians.

What I want to share with you today is how we've used staelilte data to find an ancient Egyptian city, called Itjtawy, missing for thousands of years. Itjtawy was ancinet Egypt's capital for over four hundred years, at a period of time called the midlde Kingdom, about four thousand yaers ago. The site is located in the Faiyum of Egypt, and the site is really important, because in the Middle Kingdom there was this great renaissance for ancient eipgtayn art, architecture and religion. Egyptologists have always known the site of Itjtawy was located somewhere near the pyramids of the two kings who built it, indicated within the red criecls here, but somewhere within this massive folod plain. This area is huge — it's four miles by three meils in size. The Nile used to flow right next to the city of itawjty, and as it shifted and changed and moved over time to the east, it covered over the city.

Open Cloze


So I want to show you an example of how we see ___________ using the infrared. This is a site located in the eastern Egyptian delta ______ Mendes. And the site visibly _______ brown, but when we use the infrared and we process it, all of the sudden, using false color, the site appears as bright pink. What you are seeing are the ______ chemical changes to the landscape caused by the building materials and __________ of the ancient Egyptians.

What I want to share with you today is how we've used _________ data to find an ancient Egyptian city, called Itjtawy, missing for thousands of years. Itjtawy was _______ Egypt's capital for over four hundred years, at a period of time called the ______ Kingdom, about four thousand _____ ago. The site is located in the Faiyum of Egypt, and the site is really important, because in the Middle Kingdom there was this great renaissance for ancient ________ art, architecture and religion. Egyptologists have always known the site of Itjtawy was located somewhere near the pyramids of the two kings who built it, indicated within the red _______ here, but somewhere within this massive _____ plain. This area is huge — it's four miles by three _____ in size. The Nile used to flow right next to the city of _______, and as it shifted and changed and moved over time to the east, it covered over the city.

Solution


  1. middle
  2. ancient
  3. called
  4. circles
  5. flood
  6. years
  7. activities
  8. appears
  9. miles
  10. satellite
  11. differently
  12. egyptian
  13. itjtawy
  14. actual

Original Text


So I want to show you an example of how we see differently using the infrared. This is a site located in the eastern Egyptian delta called Mendes. And the site visibly appears brown, but when we use the infrared and we process it, all of the sudden, using false color, the site appears as bright pink. What you are seeing are the actual chemical changes to the landscape caused by the building materials and activities of the ancient Egyptians.

What I want to share with you today is how we've used satellite data to find an ancient Egyptian city, called Itjtawy, missing for thousands of years. Itjtawy was ancient Egypt's capital for over four hundred years, at a period of time called the Middle Kingdom, about four thousand years ago. The site is located in the Faiyum of Egypt, and the site is really important, because in the Middle Kingdom there was this great renaissance for ancient Egyptian art, architecture and religion. Egyptologists have always known the site of Itjtawy was located somewhere near the pyramids of the two kings who built it, indicated within the red circles here, but somewhere within this massive flood plain. This area is huge — it's four miles by three miles in size. The Nile used to flow right next to the city of Itjtawy, and as it shifted and changed and moved over time to the east, it covered over the city.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
middle kingdom 3
sand dollars 2
ancient egyptian 2
thousand years 2
dense layer 2


Important Words


  1. activities
  2. actual
  3. ancient
  4. appears
  5. architecture
  6. area
  7. art
  8. bright
  9. brown
  10. building
  11. built
  12. called
  13. capital
  14. caused
  15. changed
  16. chemical
  17. circles
  18. city
  19. color
  20. covered
  21. data
  22. delta
  23. differently
  24. east
  25. eastern
  26. egypt
  27. egyptian
  28. egyptians
  29. egyptologists
  30. faiyum
  31. false
  32. find
  33. flood
  34. flow
  35. great
  36. huge
  37. important
  38. infrared
  39. itjtawy
  40. kingdom
  41. kings
  42. landscape
  43. located
  44. massive
  45. materials
  46. mendes
  47. middle
  48. miles
  49. missing
  50. moved
  51. nile
  52. period
  53. pink
  54. plain
  55. process
  56. pyramids
  57. red
  58. religion
  59. renaissance
  60. satellite
  61. share
  62. shifted
  63. show
  64. site
  65. size
  66. sudden
  67. thousand
  68. thousands
  69. time
  70. today
  71. visibly
  72. years