Find You Next Dig with Google Earth

Scholar finds new archaeological sites by Googling.

Indiana Jones's next adventure may well be in front of a computer if Hollywood scriptwriters decide to embrace a new approach to archaeological research in war-torn zones.

David Thomas, a Ph.D. student in La Trobe University's archaeological program in Melbourne, has used Google Earth to safely uncover historic sites in a remote part of war-torn Afghanistan.

Using the free Internet resource, Thomas found up to 450 possible archaeological sites in Registan, which borders Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. The decision to use Google Earth was "partly born out of adversity", Thomas said, when a planned field trip was cancelled because of security concerns.

That is great he can use this technology to find sites like this. My only question. How are they going to do anything. I mean the reason they didn't go in the first place was because it is too dangerous.