Ten years after the publication of her first scholarly tome dedicated to the relatively new field of “space archaeology” (1), Sarah Parcak leaves behind the matter-of-fact tone of textbooks to offer readers a more personal view on satellite remote sensing and how it has come to take its place in the archaeologist's toolbelt. Her new book takes readers across the globe as she seeks to understand the distant past with the help of modern satellites. Her writing is full of evocative anecdotes and personal insights gleaned from years of experience in dusty trenches as well as behind the computer screen, poring over satellite images.
The book divides itself between the trenches and the sky because results obtained through satellite imagery must always be verified on the ground. She introduces readers to the field of aerial remote sensing through numerous case studies, turning complex research into something much more approachable. In one such case, Parcak takes readers to the Skagafjörður Church and Settlement Survey, in northern Iceland, where ground-based survey methods had yielded promising results, and the addition of satellite images has allowed researchers to identify new Viking walls strewn across the landscape.
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