Informative, humorous and inspiring!

Sarah Parcak is enthusiastic and stimulating about archaeological data gathering, and advances in that field, of how satellite imaging has helped amongst many things, new archeological discoveries and assisted in the investigation of looting of sites globally. A leader in her field, a winner of the Ted talk 2015 million dollar award, and a force to be reckoned with.
Yet there is a humility to her writing that makes this book so much more engaging. She's witty and a fabulous communicator making this work so very approachable.
I felt like I was actually there with her. I'm no archeological or technological buff but I was mostly able to understand what she was talking about. She brings to the topic excitement, awe and the ability to inspire. This book is just so very readable!
Her humorous part about meeting Harrison Ford I found delightful. Actually she has quite a few humorous, even self deprecating asides throughout the book.
I remember traveling by bus (yes it was dangerous) across Mexico many, many moons ago, looking at the shapes of the mountains and the jungles and wondering what was hidden there. It seems Sarah and her associates may have found that way.
I read with some excitement about the investigations in Newfoundland. Having followed Norse settlements around that isle including L’Anse aux Meadows, over to Ireland, and whenever I'm in a part of the world where this is relevant, added to my delight. Her remarks about Vinland are fascinating, including her statement, 'I believe that more Norse sites will be found in Canada in the next decade.'
And then at the last there is what is happening now via the GlobalXplorer (GX) platform where ordinary folk can contribute to discovering the history of our civilizations. Parcak's 'inspiring idea' for the Ted talk award 'that would lead to global change', was to 'discover the millions of unknown archaeological sites across the globe. By building an online citizen-science platform and training a 21st-century army of global explorers, [to] find and protect the world’s hidden heritage, which contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity.'
As Sarah so aptly paraphrases at one stage, 'The game is afoot.'
And we could be part of it!

A Henry Holt ARC via NetGalley

This is such an impressive book by such an impressive human being (I know she is a woman). On top of a PhD, she has won a TED (genius) Award, and a Smithsonian American Ingenuity award. With the money from the TED she spent a lot of time viewing satellite imagery looking for ancient water courses and possible excavation sites.

It's way to hard to describe the book except to say that it is well written and Parcak tries not to overwhelm the reader with a lot of technical data or verbiage. If you want to delve farther, there is a lot of her findings on the 'net. This was a pleasure to read.

No matter how far we move into the future, there will always be much that we can learn from the past. And often, the achievements of the former lead directly to paradigm shifts in the latter.

That’s where Dr. Sarah Parcak comes in. She is a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham who is at the forefront of the cutting-edge field of space archaeology. Yes, you read that right – space archaeology. Through the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and other tools, Parcak and her colleagues have completely changed the game, finding thousands of heretofore unknown potential dig sites and unlocking whole new worlds of investigative possibilities.

The National Geographic Explorer, TED Prize-winner and all-around brilliant researcher has written a new book – “Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past” – aimed at sharing her work, its importance and the history behind it. It’s a chance to gain a closer understanding of the complexities of Parcak’s work, as well as the value that comes from digging into our ancient past. It’s a compellingly-written piece of popular science.

But it also offers something that other science-oriented nonfiction doesn’t – the warm, impassioned and funny voice of Sarah Parcak.

Satellite archaeology is still very much a young field – a field in which Sarah Parcak stands at the forefront – but there’s some history there, a lot of history. Almost since we’ve had the power of flight, we’ve been using that power to take pictures from up on high. And those pictures have long been a tool in the archaeologist’s ongoing quest to find learn more about what was here before.

Parcak walks us through some of that history – as well as her own history with science and archaeology, including formative relationships with figures such as her grandfather Harold Young (a longtime professor of forestry at the University of Maine) and noted archaeologist Indiana Jones – giving us a sense of not only who she is, but from whence she came.

From there, we get in an in-depth look at Parcak’s work, everything from doing boots-on-the-ground, trowel-and-brush field work to using satellite imagery as a way to uncover undiscovered sites that would never have been found by conventional means.

The details of the work, the descriptions of the seemingly-small things that she looks for in her quest to reveal more of our history – it’s all fascinating. She goes into the specifics enough to make the reader feel informed without ever going so far as to lose us in a sea of jargon and data.

But what makes this book really shine is how much of Sarah Parcak we get. Her passion for her work is omnipresent, leaping from every page with an enthusiasm that is undeniably infectious. This is someone who loves what she does with a joyful ferocity; we should all aspire to love our work the way that she does.

Creating a narrative flow with a book like this is tricky, but “Archaeology from Space” is a real success in that regard. Yes, we get loads of information regarding the technology and technical details – all of which is fascinating – but we’re also given a sense of the why. All these ruins and relics of the past – why are they important to the now? That’s the question that Parcak answers.

And those answers don’t always take the form you might expect. For instance, there are a couple of pieces of straight-up fiction folded into the proceedings. These stories – one told from the perspective of the past, the other from the future – serve as wonderful illustrations of the ideas Parcak is presenting. Their presence is a lovely surprise, a welcome nod to the notion that archaeology is in many ways, at its core, about telling stories.

Oh, and it’s actually funny. Not “trying not to be stuffy so here’s the occasional joke” funny. Funny-funny. One of the joys of this book (of which there are money) is the heartfelt humor that Parcak delivers. The tone could be described as mildly self-deprecatory with a little bit of an edge; she’s unafraid to punctuate thoughtful and/or technically dense segments with jokes that are unabashedly goofy. It’s not on every page, but it’s present enough to greatly enhance the overall reading experience.

That’s the thing about “Archaeology from Space” – it’s not just a smart book or a thoughtful book or an informative book. It’s a FUN book. It’s a book that will prove enlightening to all manner of reader, but perhaps most of all, it’s a book that one could see being the catalyst that sparks a young person’s passion, whether it be space archaeology or some other scientific endeavor. The passion within these pages has the potential to inspire.

“Archaeology from Space” is a wonderful piece of work, a book that entertains as it informs. Sarah Parcak offers up a look at her fascinating field, high into orbit and down into the Earth. She shows us how she uses the bleeding-edge of the future to dig deeper into the past, all while telling tales in a writerly voice that is sharp, witty and charming as hell.

Eat your heart out, Indy.

Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past, by Sarah Parcak, is an entertainingly informative mix of popular science, memoir, and even some fiction. Parcak does an excellent job of bringing the rarified field of remote sensing down to earth, in both literal and metaphorical fashion.

Remote sensing is a relatively new tool in science and in particular in archaeology. Parcak dates its use in the field from 1906, when a lieutenant of the Royal Engineer’s Balloon Section used a tethered balloon to take photos of Stonehenge and “a new world had been opened up from on high.” She traces the evolution of the science and engineering through both World Wars (her grandfather, “Grampy” was a WW II paratrooper who applied his knowledge of aerial photography to forestry), government and private flights, and on into the space era, beginning in 1970 with Mary Marguerite Scalera, who “receives credit as the first person to predict correctly the future of space archaeology.” The field exploded in the 80s and has continued to expand and improve as she shows through detailing its various applications and the enhanced capabilities, such as more wavelengths, ever-increasing resolution, and the move in recent years to crowd-sourcing data (which she invites her audience to take part in). Parcak, in an imaginative rush, even present a brief story set in the future showing how the technology might progress even further: virtual reality, holograms, digs on exoplanets, and “digbots.” The author’s imagination comes into play as well in several relatively long interludes where she imagines the life of a family in ancient Egypt to highlight how archaeology isn’t just an examination of artifacts, of things, but is a way to learn more about people (including us, as more than once Parcak makes the point that learning about the past can help guide our own future).

Along with explaining how remote sensing works and charting its development, Parcak also shows its great impact on the field, including highly up to date examples such as a late-2018 discovery of 91 pre-Columbian sites in the Amazon basin region of Brazil, which leads to an extrapolation of nearly 18,000. Some of the results she covers quickly, even performing a whirlwind tour of the world in one section, touching down lightly and quickly in a host of regions. These brief examples are counter-balanced by several lengthy, in-depth digs she herself worked on and/or led. These included a multi-year dig in Egypt (her own specialty), another in Iceland, and yet another in Newfoundland where she and her colleagues search for evidence of Norse settlement.

Moving back and forth between space and the earth is both a good structure and also reinforces one of her constant points of emphasis — that whatever is discovered via remote sensing can only be verified by actual boots on the ground and trowels in the dirt (or sand). These more memoiristic scenes add a nice touch of the personal to the book, and also do a great job of conveying just what is involved in both excavating and being a dig director — the actual work, the administration, the juggling of costs. They also convey Parcak’s obvious enthusiasm for her field and love for her job, which she notes of her colleagues: “we would all do it for free. Most of us have worked for free, at some point, though we shouldn’t have to.” One of the more fascinating (I could see an entire book on the topic) applications of remote sensing is in trying to stop the sale of illegal antiquities. Our entry point into that dark world comes via a National Geographic story on looting when Parcak walks into “an imposing light-brick building with faux windows . . . a storage facility for confiscated art — things collected by the rich and famous of New York . . . where boxes of every imaginable shape and size were stacked floor to ceiling, just like the scene from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (not the first Indy reference btw—she even met Harrison Ford and had her picture taken with him).”

Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past has an engaging voice throughout, clearly explains its science and technology in terms of both how it works and its impact, nicely balances the personal and the objective, and looks forward as much as it looks into the past. It even lets the audience get into the game themselves via the Globalxplorer crowd sourcing organization. Strongly recommended.

A really good book on a the new technology that is changing archeology. Well researched and written i found the book hard to put down and finished in 2days

It is amazing how disciplines can mix with technology. This is a great way of showing the human footprint on the earth from space. Recommended for anyone interested in engaging nonfiction that want to learn new things about the Earth and human history.

This book was really fascinating but it was also somewhat dry. There was a lot of scientific jargon that was explained, which I was thankful for but I still got a little lost at times following the information. I do recommend to this one to anyone who is interested in archaeology.

I read this book as I also watched a great series on the National Geographic channel, Lost Secrets of the Maya. Both were absolutely fascinating! Although, the author's book goes into much more detail and has so much additional information and locations.
The gist of the story is that, due to advances in satellite detection, THOUSANDS of archaeological sites are being discovered! All over the world! Using satellites, we can now see through thick rain forest vegetation and under vast sand dunes. It's a very, very exciting time to be an archaeologist!
The author also tells many great stories of her experiences doing explorations. She's practically a real-life Indiana Jones!
If you have any interest at all in archaeology, or in past civilizations, this is a fantastic book to read! Highly recommend it.

Archaeology from Space is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn about this profession! I was curious as my husband used to do what was called photo interpretation using specialized equipment to locate possible ancient sites that had not been looked at previously. I found much of what he did is still being done.. just with way better equipment! The author has certainly been all over the world and her insights were very interesting as well!

What a fun read! When I opened this wonderful book the only thing I knew about archaeology had been learned years ago during the King Tut exhibition in Philadelphia. Now I know a great deal more. [Hint: Get your teenagers to read this book too. They will learn about ancient Egypt, the Vikings and a great deal more.]

This is excellent. The author's personality shines thru as she explains the ups and downs of her job and those she works with. If you haven't read much about archeology, you'll learn a ton, including lots of history, new and old tech used in the field, and some good stories. You are even shown how to contribute if you are so inclined. I found it a little tedious at times, but that's probably just me. The info is presented in an engaging and clear way, and the author's enthusiasm is clear and potentially a little infectious. Interesting stuff! Recommended.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review! I was a pleasure reading it.