Sarah Parcak
American archaeologist and egyptologist
Sarah Helen Parcak (born 1978) is an American archaeologist and Egyptologist who has used satellite imagery to identify potential archaeological sites in Egypt, Rome, and elsewhere in the former Roman Empire. She is a professor of anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In partnership with her husband, Greg Mumford, she directs survey and excavation projects in the Faiyum and in Egypt's East Delta.
Education
Parcak was born in Bangor, Maine, and received her bachelor's degree in Egyptology and Archaeological Studies from Yale University in 2001, and her PhD from the University of Cambridge. She is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); prior to that she was a teacher of Egyptian art and history at the University of Wales, Swansea.
During her undergraduate studies at Yale University, Parcak participated in her first of many digs in Egypt as well as a remote sensing course.
Career
From 2003 to 2004, Parcak used satellite images and surface surveys to detect potential sites of archaeological interest, some dating back to 3000 BC. Parcak's work consisted of detecting minute differences in topography, geology and plant life to explore sites from a variety of cultures. Satellites capable of detecting infrared wavelengths are sometimes able to distinguish differences in plant's chlorophyll, which can sometimes distinguish plants that grow over very shallow buried structures.
In partnership with her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, she directs Survey and Excavation Projects in the Fayoum and Egypt's East Delta.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sarah Parcak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.