the high tech tools that Indiana Jones would have wanted

Although our knowledge about space and its confines grows every year and the seabed slowly reveals its secrets, very close to us there are worlds about which we know very little, like the ancient civilizations that preceded us. But the panorama could change with the revolution that generated the entry of new tools such as Artificial Intelligence, drones with thermal cameras and particle accelerators.

This is a true revolution for a discipline, archaeology, which during the 19th and 20th centuries amazed us and allowed us to learn much more about our past but which, in the view of some critics, did not present many methodological advances and continued using the same tools for decades, such as shovels, brushes and magnifying glasses. Things, however, changed in recent months with a series of findings and new theories that showed the importance of complementing human talent and effort with advances in other disciplines in this field.

Today, for example, One of the greatest allies of archeology is LiDAR, a remote sensing platform that uses laser beams to measure distances and precise movements in a real-time environment. Thus, drones equipped with these systems emit pulses of light and create three-dimensional maps that can penetrate treetops, bad weather and old ruins. With these techniques, much cheaper than traditional ones, Central America’s rainforests are revealing new secrets.

Another great tool is Artificial Intelligence, which can process images and discover patterns that were not considered before, resulting in achievements such as the deciphering of scrolls more than two thousand years old that were believed impossible to read, but did not resist the tests. machine learning algorithms.

Particle accelerators, for their part, are making discoveries comparable to what the application of the carbon-14 method meant in the middle of the last century: This year a team of researchers was able to analyze the composition of the concrete that was used in Ancient Rome and that allowed them to build structures that would last more than twenty centuries.

So, The combination of human talent with two centuries of experience is enhanced with these advances that not only serve to discover new areas and objects but also to look again at those relics that today sleep in museums. and collections waiting to be better understood.

According to an extensive investigation signed by Joel Achenbach for the newspaper The Washington Post, Although a large part of the remains of old civilizations were victims of erosion, looting and accidents throughout history, in our days it is Nature that imposes a countdown.

“There is a real sense of urgency around mapping and detecting sites simply because coastal erosion, wildfires and large-scale climate events like tsunamis are impacting sites,” explained archaeologist Sarah Parcak. There is no time to waste.