Posted on 03/11/2025 2:25:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It is in one of the most remote places on the planet
For many centuries, extensive, vast and lush deserts in terms of sand have been a challenge for archaeology, as beneath their dunes there may be remains of ancient civilisations. Well, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), something surprising has been discovered in the Dubai desert.
What is synthetic aperture radar (SAR)?
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a technology that provides high-quality images of the subsoil and can penetrate sand. This information is combined with powerful algorithms to analyze large areas of land for patterns that reveal the existence of man-made structures.
The Dubai desert hides remains more than 5,000 years old Thank you for watching
One of the greatest achievements of this technology has been harvested in the Dubai desert, where traces of human activity more than 5,000 years old have been detected. This discovery has revealed that there were roads and settlements that can give us an indication of what life was like for ancient civilizations in extreme environments such as the Dubai desert.
In other places such as Mongolia, the combination of SAR and AI has allowed trade routes such as the Silk Road to be mapped and medieval cities to be found that were completely unknown until today.
AI and SAR, a promising future for archaeology
The integration of AI and SAR in archaeology is totally innovative and striking, but everything takes a process until it accurately interprets the data obtained. In this way, with the constant development of more accurate algorithms, there is a possibility that in the future more hidden stories will be known under the lush sands of the deserts, something that could rewrite the history of mankind.
Wonder if this is the legendary lost city that was only seen a couple times from airplane over the years. It was searched for many times after but never found because it was covered back up again...
I love when myth becomes fact... :)
https://www.historicmysteries.com/archaeology/iram-of-the-pillars/37122/
What is the difference between SAR and LIDAR? I have used lidar, which is great in sand or vegetated covers. But I have been out of the game for a few decades now so am unfamiliar with SAR.
Heads up
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) has been around a few years longer than LIDAR has. LIDAR uses laser and laser reflection. SAR uses RF. They have advantages and disadvantages depending on what you are trying to look through and what you are trying to measure.
You can use SAR higher up than LIDAR, because SAR is not affected as much by cloud cover. However, SAR is less detail oriented than LIDAR.
Interesting to be sure, but no photos in the article— LAME.
Genesis 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
Who can keep up?
Indeed, I rarely know exactly what to do..........
Interesting. Because of detail, it yields spectacular results. I participated in one of the first public trials of GPR in 1982. It wasn’t much different looking that what you see dragged along the ground today, but it was absolutely amazing in its day. Before we used it in the field on an Excavation, we dragged it across a quiet, little used blacktop hiway in Texas.
I didn’t think much of it until I saw the image of a tree truck, with a perfect root system, under the hiway. I don’t remember the gentleman’s name that demonstrated it for us, but he was a NASA engineer. Apparently it was developed as part of the moon investigation effort.
I’ve seen similar things. Forgotten railroad beds and such. Read an article many years ago in nat geo how they used this to scan some areas in Africa I think. Picked up packed sand tracks from years of camel traffic. Tracked the spokes to the center of convergence and found ruins buried. Really cool.
We have used it in Israel and have detected the outlines of buried buildings that are 2000+ years old. It is amazing for the purpose of finding ancient structures.
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