Field Expedition: Mongolia

Citizen Scientists can play a little bit of Indiana Jones right from the comfort of their living room. Okay, it might not be nearly as cool as being there yourself, but at least you won't deal with snakes, bandits, maniacal adversaries. Plus, your efforts will help professional archaeologists in their quest to find the Tomb of Genghis Khan.

National Geographic is the sponsor behind Field Expedition: Mongolia, a project in which participants pour over satellite photos to identify potential sites of further archaeological investigation. The goals of this project are succinctly identified in the projects's mission statement:

"This study aims to utilize modern non-invasive tools in the search for the tomb of Genghis Khan, thus shedding light on Mongolia's rich historical heritage and enabling conservation and education of this rapidly changing landscape."


You may ask how rapidly can Mongolia's landscape be changing? As this blurb in Scientific American points out, the regions suffers a growing trend of illegal mining. My guess is these operations pay no heed to any potential archaeological finds that may be hidden beneath the earth.

There are a couple things I really like about this project. First, having been trained in geography and GIS, I know a bit about the art of aerial photo interpretation. It's an interesting subject that takes a bit of practice. Once you have some of the basics down, however, you'll never look at Google Maps imagery quite the same way.

Second, the project really does emphasize the importance of archaeological conservation. Any prospective sites found in the imagery will be carefully evaluated with a slew of techniques way before any shovels are poked into the ground. Careful surveying, ground penetrating radar, diligent cataloging...all are very important steps used by modern archaeologists to preserve as much of the area of interest as possible.

Third, as I stated early on in this post, it's a chance to...okay maybe not be, but definitely help Indiana Jones with some very important work. And I know, I know, invoking the spectacular myth of Indiana Jones seems such a cliche. But in my defense I was 8 years old when this movie came out. I saw it probably half a dozen times in the movie theater.

Even though I did not go on to do archaeology, and even though I understand that normal archaeologists do not strut around with a bull whip and six shooter, I have never lost that fascination of digging into the past. And I believe there are quite a few liked-minded people out there in the webosphere. To them I say, "Here's your chance."