Πόλη του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου, χαμένη για πολλά χρόνια, αποκαλύφθηκε στο Ιράκ
από αρχαιολόγους,
με τεχνολογία drone
από αρχαιολόγους,
με τεχνολογία drone
 |
| Μεταφρασμένο το άρθρο των Times, 25.9.2017. |
Ancient
Greece: Alexander the Great’s
Long-Lost City Uncovered by Archaeologists Using
Drone Technology
An ancient fortress city founded by Alexander the Great and believed
lost to history for 2,000 years has been rediscovered by archaeologists who
used drones to verify declassified spy photos showing the location.
The team from London’s British Museum first thought they might have
located the city in modern-day Iraq while studying military satellite imaging
from the 1960s. The U.S. government documents were declassified in 1996, The
Times of London reported.
The team of British and Iraqi excavators confirmed the location of the
city by flying a drone equipped with a camera over the site. The processed
images showed the outlines of a sizable rectangular building hidden beneath
fields.
Internal security problems in Iraq made an archaeological dig
impossible. Gaining access to the country while it remained under the
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and following the U.S.-led invasion of the
country in 2003 was out of the question. It was not until recent years that
excavators could conduct their work in safety.
The most intact artifacts
uncovered by the team included a pair of statues: One depicted Persephone, the
daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and the other Adonis, a symbol
of fertility. Archaeologists used drones to verify declassified spy photos
showing the location. British Museum
The site has been used by the British team as part of a U.K.-funded
program to train Iraqis working on the restoration of sites destroyed or
vandalized by the Islamic State militant group, or ISIS.
The fortified settlement in northern Iraq, Qalatga Darband, was known
for its wine trade and was likely built on the route by Alexander of
Macedon—Alexander the Great—as he pursued the Persian ruler Darius III across
eastern Asia in the fourth century B.C.
The archaeologist in charge of the project, John MacGinnis, said the
Emergency Heritage Management Training Programme and its initiates had
established for the first time that there was a city in the area dating to the
first and second centuries B.C.
He explained that the use of drones had been crucial to locating the
site. “The drone yielded excellent information,” MacGinnis said. “We got
coverage of all the site using the drone in the spring—analyzing crop marks
hasn’t been done at all in Mesopotamian archaeology.
“Where there are walls underground, the wheat and barley don’t grow so
well, so there are color differences in the crop growth,” he added.
In Qalatga Darband, the team uncovered statues of Greco-Roman gods,
showing the strength of Greek influence on the city—and indicating its early
residents were likely subjects of the legendary Greek emperor and his
successor.
ΠΗΓΗ: Newsweek, 26.9.2017 11:44 AM
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