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https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/27/hobbyist-archaeologists-identify-thousands-of-ancient-sites-in-england-deep-time-digventures-national-trust>
"Bronze age burial mounds, Roman roads and deserted medieval villages are among
almost 13,000 previously-unknown ancient sites and monuments that have been
discovered by members of the public in recent months, it will be announced this
week.
Truck drivers and doctors are among more than 1,000 people who participated in
Deep Time, a “citizen science project” which has harnessed the power of
hobbyists to scour 512 sq km (200 sq miles) of Earth Observation data,
including high-resolution satellite and lidar – laser technology – imagery.
Participants were searching for ancient features across three distinct
landscapes: an area of the Peak District spanning Derbyshire, West Yorkshire
and South Yorkshire; Wallington in Northumberland; and Purbeck and Studland in
Dorset.
They have found 262 possible Bronze age barrows and three Roman roads, among
other discoveries. The project is a partnership between DigVentures, an
archaeology social enterprise, and the National Trust, which owns and manages
large areas of those landscapes.
Maiya Pina-Dacier, a senior archaeologist with DigVentures, said: “We’ve now
got the preliminary results in and they’re really impressive. Our citizen
scientists – or ‘Pastronauts’ as we call them – identified 12,802 ancient sites
and monuments that were previously unknown.”
Pina-Dacier said the discoveries were particularly exciting because “all of
this was achieved within just three months and included local, national and
international citizens, many of whom had never done any archaeology before”.
Dr Brendon Wilkins, founder and co-chief executive of DigVentures, said:
“Thanks to our Pastronauts, we were able to map much larger areas, in much
greater detail, and much more quickly than professional archaeologists alone
could have done."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
