Drone and satellite imagery lead to monumental discovery at

A True Open Forum; Share/Discuss whatever you like
User avatar
Edge Guerrero
Posts: 8287
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:14 am
Reputation: 3064
Location: Smackdown Hotel at "the corner of Know Your Role Blvd

Drone and satellite imagery lead to monumental discovery at

Postby Edge Guerrero » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:15 am

Petra

By Rob Verger Published June 09, 2016

Image
A view of the ancient city of Petra January 4, 2008. (REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed )

At the famous Petra World Heritage site in Jordan, researchers have discovered a large new monumental platform roughly a half mile from the city center— and they did it by utilizing Google Earth, satellite imagery, ground work, and even drone photography.

The archaeologists describe the unparalleled find as “a large rectangular platform” that measures about 184 feet by 160 feet and was essentially “hiding in plain site.” Within this platform is another, smaller one, that was at one point flagstone-paved and had columns on one side.

Not only that, the columns “crowned a monumental stairway,” the researchers, Sarah Parcak and Christopher Tuttle, report in the study announcing the new find in the journal Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Image

The platforms also contained a small building.

The archaeologists say that the find is unique. “This monumental platform has no parallels at Petra or in its hinterlands at present,” they write in the study, adding: “The amount of effort to construct the site was massive, yet the focal building itself is quite small.”

They speculate that ancient people built the platform “when Petra was flourishing as the capital city of Nabataean kingdom, possibly as early as the mid-century B.C.E.”

monumental discovery at Petra
By Rob Verger Published June 09, 2016 FoxNews.com
Facebook390 Twitter117 livefyre148 Email Print
A view of the ancient city of Petra January 4, 2008.
A view of the ancient city of Petra January 4, 2008. (REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed )
At the famous Petra World Heritage site in Jordan, researchers have discovered a large new monumental platform roughly a half mile from the city center— and they did it by utilizing Google Earth, satellite imagery, ground work, and even drone photography.

The archaeologists describe the unparalleled find as “a large rectangular platform” that measures about 184 feet by 160 feet and was essentially “hiding in plain site.” Within this platform is another, smaller one, that was at one point flagstone-paved and had columns on one side.

Not only that, the columns “crowned a monumental stairway,” the researchers, Sarah Parcak and Christopher Tuttle, report in the study announcing the new find in the journal Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Related: Rare cache of silver coins discovered in Israel

The platforms also contained a small building.

The archaeologists say that the find is unique. “This monumental platform has no parallels at Petra or in its hinterlands at present,” they write in the study, adding: “The amount of effort to construct the site was massive, yet the focal building itself is quite small.”

They speculate that ancient people built the platform “when Petra was flourishing as the capital city of Nabataean kingdom, possibly as early as the mid-century B.C.E.”

Related: New Viking site in North America? Experts eye satellite data for potential discovery

The platform and related structures probably served a ceremonial purpose— and perhaps were even used as a chapel in the Byzantine era. During Islam, it might have served a more day-to-day purpose, like as a camp site.

"I'm sure that over the course of two centuries of research [in Petra], someone had to know [this site] was there, but it's never been systematically studied or written up," Tuttle, the executive director of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, told National Geographic. "I've worked in Petra for 20 years, and I knew that something was there, but it's certainly legitimate to call this a discovery."

Sarah Parcak, an associate professor at the University of Alabama and a 2013 TED fellow, is also behind the discovery of what could be a new Viking site in North America.

Image

Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger

Source http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/06/09/drone-and-satellite-imagery-lead-to-monumental-discovery-at-petra.html
- I rent this space for advertising

Don't be selfish, preserve this world for the next generations.

I'll never long for what might have been
Regret won't waste my life again
I won't look back I'll fight to remain

Return to “Anarchy Zone”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 139 guests