When I was a child growing up in Maine, one of my favorite things to do was to look for sand dollars on the seashores of Maine, because my parents told me it would bring me luck. But you know, these shells, they're hard to find. They're covered in sand, they're difficult to see. However, over time, I got used to looking for them. I started seeing shapes and patterns that helped me to collect them.
Odrastajući u Maineu, jedna od mojih najdražih aktivnosti bila je tražiti pješčane dolare (Clypeasteroida) na obali Majne, zato što su mi roditelji rekli da će mi donijeti sreću. Ali, znate, te školjke je teško naći. Prekrivene su pijeskom i teško ih je vidjeti. No, s vremenom, naučila sam se tražiti ih. Počela sam vidjeti oblike i uzorke koji su mi pomagali skupljati ih.
This grew into a passion for finding things, a love for the past and archaeology. And eventually, when I started studying Egyptology, I realized that seeing with my naked eyes alone wasn't enough. Because all of the sudden, in Egypt, my beach had grown from a tiny beach in Maine to one eight hundred miles long, next to the Nile. And my sand dollars had grown to the size of cities. This is really what brought me to using satellite imagery. For trying to map the past, I knew that I had to see differently.
To se pretvorilo u strast za pronalaženjem stvari, u ljubav prema prošlosti i arheologiji. I, naposljetku, kada sam počela proučavati egiptologiju, shvatila sam da vidjeti svojim golim okom nije dovoljno. Zato što je odjednom u Egiptu moja plaža, iz malene plaže u Maineu, narasla u plažu kraj Nila dugu 1280 km, a moji pješčani dolari narasli su do veličine gradova. To je ono što me zbilja potaklo na korištenje satelitskih snimki. Da bih pokušala mapirati prošlost, znala sam da moram vidjeti na drugačiji način.
So I want to show you an example of how we see differently using the infrared. This is a site located in the eastern Egyptian delta called Mendes. And the site visibly appears brown, but when we use the infrared and we process it, all of the sudden, using false color, the site appears as bright pink. What you are seeing are the actual chemical changes to the landscape caused by the building materials and activities of the ancient Egyptians.
Pa vam želim pokazati jedan primjer kako vidimo drugačije koristeći infracrveno svjetlo. Ovo je nalazište smješteno u istočnoj egipatskoj delti koja se zove Bendix. Nalazište je naočigled prikazano smeđe, ali kada koristimo infracrveno svjetlo i obradimo ga, odjednom, koristeći krivu boju, nalazište postaje svijetlo roza. Ono što vidite su prave kemijske promjene na krajoliku koje su prouzročili građevinski materijali i aktivnosti starih Egipćana.
What I want to share with you today is how we've used satellite data to find an ancient Egyptian city, called Itjtawy, missing for thousands of years. Itjtawy was ancient Egypt's capital for over four hundred years, at a period of time called the Middle Kingdom, about four thousand years ago. The site is located in the Faiyum of Egypt, and the site is really important, because in the Middle Kingdom there was this great renaissance for ancient Egyptian art, architecture and religion. Egyptologists have always known the site of Itjtawy was located somewhere near the pyramids of the two kings who built it, indicated within the red circles here, but somewhere within this massive flood plain. This area is huge -- it's four miles by three miles in size. The Nile used to flow right next to the city of Itjtawy, and as it shifted and changed and moved over time to the east, it covered over the city.
Danas vam želim ispričati kako smo koristili satelitske podatke da bismo našli jedan stari egipatski grad nazvan Itjtawy, koji je bio izgubljen tisućama godina. Itjtawy je bio staroegipatski glavni grad preko 400 godina, u vrijeme koje se zvalo Srednje kraljevstvo, prije oko 4000 godina. Nalazište je smješteno u Faiyumu u Egiptu i veoma je važno zato što je u Srednjem kraljevstvu bila velika renesansa staroegipatske umjetnosti, arhitekture i religije. Egiptolozi su oduvijek znali da se nalazište Itjtawyja smjestilo negdje blizu piramida dva kralja koja su ga sagradila, što je naznačeno unutar ovih crvenih krugova, ali negdje unutar ove ravnine s obilnim poplavama. To područje je ogromno - veličine 6.5 kilometara sa 4.8 kilometara. Nil je nekada tekao odmah kraj grada Itjtawyja, a kako je mijenjao tok i s vremenom se pomicao na istok, prekrio je grad.
So, how do you find a buried city in a vast landscape? Finding it randomly would be the equivalent of locating a needle in a haystack, blindfolded, wearing baseball mitts.
Pa, kako naći zakopani grad na širokom području? Naći ga nasumice bilo bi jednako pronalasku igle u plastu sijena, vezanih očiju i s bejzbolskim rukavicama.
(Laughter)
Koristili smo NASA-ine topografske podatke
So what we did is we used NASA topography data to map out the landscape, very subtle changes. We started to be able to see where the Nile used to flow. But you can see in more detail, and even more interesting, this very slight raised area seen within the circle up here which we thought could possibly be the location of the city of Itjtawy.
kako bismo mapirali krajolik, veoma suptilne promjene. Polako smo mogli vidjeti gdje je Nil nekada tekao. Ali možete detaljnije vidjeti - što je još zanimljivije - ovo veoma blago povišeno područje s krugom ovdje, za koje smo mislili da bi mogla biti lokacija Itjtawyja.
So we collaborated with Egyptian scientists to do coring work, which you see here. When I say coring, it's like ice coring, but instead of layers of climate change, you're looking for layers of human occupation. And, five meters down, underneath a thick layer of mud, we found a dense layer of pottery. What this shows is that at this possible location of Itjtawy, five meters down, we have a layer of occupation for several hundred years, dating to the Middle Kingdom, dating to the exact period of time we think Itjtawy is. We also found work stone -- carnelian, quartz and agate that shows that there was a jeweler's workshop here. These might not look like much, but when you think about the most common stones used in jewelry from the Middle Kingdom, these are the stones that were used.
Surađivali smo s egipatskim znanstvenicima da bismo obavili radove na jezgri, što vidite ovdje. Kada kažem radovi na jezgri, to je poput vađenja jezgre ledenjaka, ali umjesto slojeva klimatskih promjena tražite slojeve ljudske aktivnosti. I pet metara niže, ispod debelog sloja blata, našli smo gust sloj lončarije. To pokazuje da na ovoj mogućoj lokaciji Itjtawyja, pet metara niže, imamo sloj aktivnosti koja je trajala više stotina godina datirajući u doba Srednjeg kraljevstva, datirajući do točnog perioda u kojem mislimo da je Itjtawy. Pronašli smo i kamen - karneol, kvarc i ahat koji pokazuju da je ovdje bila draguljareva radionica. Možda se ovo ne čini posebnim, ali kada razmislite o najčešćem kamenju korištenom u nakitu iz Srednjeg kraljevstva, to je ono kamenje koje se koristilo.
So, we have a dense layer of occupation dating to the Middle Kingdom at this site. We also have evidence of an elite jeweler's workshop, showing that whatever was there was a very important city. No Itjtawy was here yet, but we're going to be returning to the site in the near future to map it out. And even more importantly, we have funding to train young Egyptians in the use of satellite technology so they can be the ones making great discoveries as well.
Tako na ovom nalazištu imamo gusti sloj aktivnosti koji datira u vrijeme Srednjeg kraljevstva. Imamo i dokaz jedne elitne draguljarske radionice, što pokazuje da je ondje bio veoma važan grad. Itjtawy još nije bio tu, ali vratit ćemo se na nalazište u skoroj budućnosti kako bismo ga mapirali. I što je važnije, imamo sredstva za obučavanje mladih Egipćana za korištenje satelitske tehnologije kako bi oni bili ti koji također ostvaruju velika otkrića.
So I wanted to end with my favorite quote from the Middle Kingdom -- it was probably written at the city of Itjtawy four thousand years ago. "Sharing knowledge is the greatest of all callings. There's nothing like it in the land." So as it turns out, TED was not founded in 1984 AD.
Htjela bih završiti svojim omiljenim citatom iz Srednjeg kraljevstva - vjerojatno je napisan u Itjtawyju prije 4000 godina. "Dijeljenje znanja je najveće od svih zvanja. Ne postoji ništa poput toga." Pa tako ispada da TED nije utemeljen 1984. godine naše ere.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Making ideas actually started in 1984 BC at a not-lost-for-long city, found from above. It certainly puts finding seashells by the seashore in perspective.
Stvaranje ideja zapravo je započelo 1984. godine prije naše ere u gradu koji nije dugo bio izgubljen, a pronađen je odozgora. To svakako čini pronalaženje školjki kraj obale najmanjom brigom.
Thank you very much.
Mnogo vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)