Sarah Parcak

Sarah Helen Parcak is an American archaeologist, Egyptologist, and remote sensing expert, who has used satellite imaging to identify potential archaeological sites in Egypt, Rome, and elsewhere in the former Roman Empire. She is the associate professor of Anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In partnership with her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, she directs survey and excavation projects in the Faiyum, Sinai, and Egypt's East Delta.

Parcak was born in Bangor, Maine, and received her bachelor's degree in Egyptology and Archaeological Studies from Yale University in 2001 and her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. She is an associate professor of Anthropology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); prior to that she was a teacher of Egyptian art and history at the University of Wales, Swansea.

From 2003 to 2004, Parcak used a combination of satellite imaging analysis and surface surveys to search for 132 potential sites of archaeological interest, some dating back to 3,000 B.C.

In partnership with her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, she directs Survey and Excavation Projects in the Fayoum, Sinai, and Egypt's East Delta. They have used several types of satellite imagery to look for water sources and possible archaeological sites. According to Parcak, this approach reduces the time and cost for determining archaeological sites compared to surface detection.

In 2007 she founded the Laboratory for Global Health Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In 2015 she won the $1 million TED Prize for 2016.

In 2015 Parcak visited L'Anse aux Meadows – an archeological site discovered in 1960 in Newfoundland – in order to demonstrate that satellite imagery can detect artifacts in regions covered by tall grasses and other plant life.

In May 2011 the BBC aired a documentary, Egypt's Lost Cities, describing BBC-sponsored research carried out by Parcak's UAB team for over a year using infra-red satellite imaging from commercial and NASA satellites. The programme discussed the research and showed Parcak in Egypt looking for physical evidence. The UAB team announced that they had "discovered" 17 pyramids, more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements outside Sa el-Hagar, Egypt. However, the Minister of State for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, was critical of the announcement and said : "This is completely wrong information. Any archeologist will deny this completely".

In May 2012 she was the subject of a half-hour program on CNN's The Next List which profiles innovators "who are setting trends and making strides in various fields."

She was the focus of "Rome's Lost Empire", a TV documentary by Dan Snow, first shown on BBC Oneon 9 December 2012. She prospectively identified several significant sites in Romania, Nabataea, Tunisia, and Italy, including the arena at Portus, the lighthouse and a canal to Rome beside the river Tiber.

A BBC co-production with PBS, NOVA/WGBH Boston and France Television, Vikings Unearthed" (first broadcast April 4, 2016) documented her use of satellite imagery to detect possible remnants of Viking bog iron extraction in Point Rosee, Newfoundland.

In 2009 her book Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology was published by Routledge, describing the methodology of satellite archaeology. A review in Antiquity described it as focusing "more on technical methodology than interpretation and analysis," described Parcak's work as, "written in a lively style that makes a highly technical subject accessible to a general audience," and concluded that it was "a good introduction for undergraduate students of archaeology, anthropology and geography."