Archaeological Looting in Egypt: A Geospatial View (Case Studies from Saqqara, Lisht, and el Hibeh)
While many news reports exist about archaeological site looting in Egypt following its January 2011 Revolution, no one had yet examined the issue of how looting patterns changed over time across the country or at distinct archaeological sites. This study uses rapidly tasked high resolution satellite...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2015
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| In: |
Near Eastern archaeology
Year: 2015, Volume: 78, Issue: 3, Pages: 196-203 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | While many news reports exist about archaeological site looting in Egypt following its January 2011 Revolution, no one had yet examined the issue of how looting patterns changed over time across the country or at distinct archaeological sites. This study uses rapidly tasked high resolution satellite images from 2009–2013 to assess looting at three important regions: The pyramid fields (from Abusir to Dashur), el Hibeh, and Lisht. We mapped looting pits and their areas to assess overall change in looting patterns, and noted an increase of over 500% over the three year time period. While open source tools like Google Earth are useful for longer term looting mapping projects, we suggest that rapidly tasked commercial satellite imagery can provide near real-time looting evaluation of sites. Ground truthing visits are described here, as well as potential solutions via collaborative programs in partnership with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-5404 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Near Eastern archaeology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5615/neareastarch.78.3.0196 |