UDESC Matutino 2014/1

Archaeologists use drones to study Peru's ruins

[1] To get a bird's-eye view of ancient sites, archaeologists often turn to planes, helicopters

and even hot air balloons. But today researchers have access to more agile and less

expensive technology to map, explore and protect archaeological treasures: tiny

airborne drones.

[5]  In Peru – the home of Machu Picchu and other amazing ruins – the government is

planning to purchase several drones to quickly and cheaply conduct archaeological

surveys in areas targeted for building or development, according to Reuters.

Archaeologists working in the country have already been using small flying robots to

study ancient sites, including the colonial Andean town Machu Llacta, and the San José

[10]  de Moro burial grounds, which contain the tombs of Moche priestesses. Some

researchers have even built their own drones for less than $ 2,000, Reuters reported.

"It's like having a scalpel instead of a club," Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard

University, told the news agency. "You can control it to a very fine degree. You can go

up 3 meters and photograph a room, 300 meters and photograph a site, or you can go

[15]  up 3,000 meters and photograph the entire valley."

Cheap and effective drones could be a boon for Peru's culture ministry, which has a

modest budget and is tasked with protecting more than 13,000 archaeological sites that

are threatened by looters, squatters and illegal mining, according to Reuters.

Elsewhere robots have enabled archaeological discovery. A remote-controlled robot the

[20]  size of a lawn mower recently found burial chambers inside the Temple of the Feathered

Serpent, an ancient pyramid in Mexico. And in Russia, researchers used a miniature

airborne drone to capture images that could be used to create a 3-D model of an ancient

burial mound.

www.foxnews.com/tech/2013.

Accessed on: 26/08/2013.