You can now be an archaeologist from the comfort of your own home and help preserve the world's hidden heritage sites in the process.

Sarah Parcak has released her GlobalXplorer software, described as "Indiana Jones meets Google Earth”. Professor Parcak hopes it will be used by amateur archaeologists to help unearth vital sites using high-resolution satellite images.

GlobalXplorer


“The world’s hidden heritage contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity,͟” said Parcak. “It’s up to all of us to protect this heritage, and with GlobalXplorer we are empowering a 21st-century army of global explorers to discover and protect our shared history.”

GlobalXplorer was the winner of last year's $1 million TED Prize. Pitted as "a new global alarm system" in the fight against looters, the online platform is now live. It was developed in partnership with TED, National Geographic and Digital Globe and uses infrared imagery from satellites to uncover the ancient sites.

Parcak grabbed the attention of TED when she used the software to aid her discovery of 17 pyramids, thousands of tombs and settlements, and mapped out an entire city in ancient Egypt - all from orbit. She used powerful satellite cameras that photograph in infrared to pinpoint structures below the ground and invisible to the naked eye.

Ryan Lash/TED

To encourage participation on a global scale, GlobalXplorer is based on game dynamics and does not make mapping or GPS data available, so as to protect sites. Once citizen scientists make discoveries, the data will be handed to government officials in the countries affected, and to academic archaeologists, who will then document the subsequent digs and their discoveries on social media - sharing the process of archaeological discovery.