And now, in a powerful endorsement of work that may bolster efforts to cripple looting across the Middle East and the rest of the world, TED, the nonprofit forum with the motto “ideas worth spreading,” is scheduled on Monday to announce that Dr. Parcak, 36, has won its most prestigious award — a $1 million prize to develop a project of her choice. Details of the project are to be revealed in a live broadcast of her talk at the TED conference in February in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Looting and destruction in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, have drawn more attention in recent months. And cultural thievery remains a problem in Egypt, where last week the government seized 1,124 stolen artifacts at the port of Damietta. They were en route to Thailand, according to the Al Bawaba news service.

“We have a major challenge so we are looking for an out-of-the box solution,” said Ali Ahmed, director general of the repatriation department of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, “and Sarah’s work is part of that.”

Dr. Parcak, a Yale graduate with a doctorate from Cambridge, is already teaming up with Egypt to train authorities there to thwart looters by involving community leaders in tourism activities connected to the ancient sites. That model was developed by the Sustainable Preservation Initiative in Peru, which also has a looting crisis.