Space archaeologist Sarah Parcak examines a satellite image.
Credit: Sarah Parcak
Badgers
discovered the burial site of 12th-century Slavic warriors and a Stonehenge cremation burial. The Lascaux cave paintings were discovered by four schoolchildren and a dog. The 5,000-year-old corpse of Ötzi was discovered when hikers happened upon in the Alps. The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers expanding their fort.
Many discoveries in archaeology have happened this way, by accident. But archaeology now has much better tools than badgers and lucky amateurs with shovels.
Take, for example, the search for the ancient lost city of Itjtawy in Egypt. https://www.livescience.com/57364-archaeological-sites-discovered-from-space.html
