Sarah Parcak

Sarah Helen Parcak (born 1979 in Bangor, Maine) is an assistant professor of anthropology at UAB, renowned as a "space archaeologist" for her pioneering use of satellite-based sensing technology to identify ancient sites and detect the activities of looters.

Parcak completed a bachelor's degree in Egyptology at Yale University in 2001 and a Ph.D in archaeology at Cambridge University. She taught Egyptian art and history at the University of Wales in Swansea before coming to Birmingham. She and her husband, Greg Mumford, have directed survey and excavation projects in Fayoum, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Nile's East Delta. Infra-red imagery from commercial and NASA satellites assisted in locating water sources and potential sites. The UAB team claimed discovery of seventeen pyramids, more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 settlements in the vicinity of Sa el-Hagar. The Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities has not yet verified those claims.

The UK's BBC network funded some of that research, which was publicized in the 2011 documentary Egypt's Lost Cities. Her techniques were also featured in a 2012 documentary Rome's Lost Empire, which revealed the discovery of several sites in Romania, Nabetaea, Tunisia and Italy, including an arena at Portus and a lighthouse and canal paralleling the Tiber river.

In 2007 Parcak founded the Laboratory for Global Health Observation at UAB.

Publications

Parcak, Sarah (2009) Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology. Routledge