Satellite Data Exposes Looting of Archaeological Sites

It is known that archaeological heritage is under the threat by looting across the globe. The archaeological sites have been destroyed leading to loss of our ancient cultures. As per the results of the research conducted, the satellite data has given a way to monitor the destruction happening to the archaeological sites.

However it is feasible now to be able to understand the type of activities done by the looters in remote regions and how that can be prevented in order to protect the archaeological sites. For more than 2,500 years now, horse riding nomads had expanded their cultural monarchy right from Southern Siberia to Eastern Europe covering the Eurasian steppe. The tribes, together, had buried their dead in large burial mounds along with the gold jewellery and weapons of their superior craftsmanship. It has been observed that most of the organic materials do not exist anymore; however few objects that are made from metals have been able to last. Looters are attracted towards these more often as they are made of materials like bronze and gold. In the era of colonization of Siberia in the 18th century, looting was made a seasonal job and the gangs of diggers excavated burials from spring to autumn each year. The prehistoric artworks were more often molten down to be used to transport the metals more easily and conveniently. It is however not easy to find the unlooted tombs and also there has been a sudden increase in the prices for archaeological objects from these burials. Gino Caspari from the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern had analysed the condition of burials based on high-resolution satellite imagery in a region which was not accessible so easily. These data are of a great help to assess the degree of destruction on our archaeological heritage. Caspari explained that "We specifically chose an area of interest in Xinjiang, China. We assumed that, due to the remoteness and the heavy presence of security forces in the region, we would find a higher proportion of intact tombs". But all these assumptions were proven to be wrong as Caspari had said that "More than 74.5 percent of the analysed burials were already destroyed and plundered". While this analysis, the researchers found that high-resolution satellite imagery is able to give an accurate measurement of the destruction at a particular site and then with the help of time series of different datasets, it is feasible to monitor looting effectively. After analysing the data from 2003, Caspari found that the number of looted tombs have increased substantially. This research has been published in the journal Heritage, allows conducting a consequent monitoring on archaeological heritage in remote regions of Central Asia. If looting at a particular region can be observed at an early stage then it is always easy to take measures for the protection of the tombs.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181217105856.htm