2 pyramid sites found on Google Earth ?

Mountainsandh

http://news.sky.com/story/971892/two-new-pyramids-found-on-google-earth

How could they possibly have missed these ? First site seems to be 12 miles from a city by the Nile, surely that's not so remote that no one ever goes there ???

Do you think it's possible ?

Simon.d

I thinks it's very possible... Unlike our nice lush pastures, desert is very difficult to survey from land, so lots of stuff is bound to be buried under the sand with "earthworks" remaining unidentified.. Satelite data from Microsoft and Google is a major addition to the archaeologists toolbelt methinks..

Spend hours myself thralling through satellite imagery of Ireland, looking for earthworks, cropmarks and the like... It's a very powerful tool...

A few quick local examples:
I think Waterford's woodstown longphort enclosure can be seen in cropmarks here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=52.247441,-7.19627&spn=0.001987,0.005284&t=h&z=18

Rath and surrounding Fieldsystem: http://binged.it/P8lwOs

An absolute ton of stuff going on here, potential town alongside Ballymoon castle in carlow? http://binged.it/P8lOos

If ever you have a few hours to burn!

Mountainsandh

hhmmm... I know, the aerial data etc... are great, but surely, that triangular plateau must be pretty conspicuous, even from the ground ?
If they're in fact human constructions it will be very interesting to see what they reveal.

Simon.d

Managed to find the two sites:

Here's the Triangular Plateau: https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=28.357228,30.42626&spn=0.005712,0.010568&ctz=-60&t=h&z=17

Here's The Square one: http://binged.it/P8yDiT

The Royal Scam

Simon.d wrote: »

I thinks it's very possible... Unlike our nice
An absolute ton of stuff going on here, potential town alongside Ballymoon castle in carlow? http://binged.it/P8lOos

If ever you have a few hours to burn!

I only live about 10mins from Ballymoon, thats amazing to look at, I always say when my kids grow up I will have a look at Archaeology , maybe I can sneak a little bit in before then. I have never done it , but lurk in this forum sometimes

Mountainsandh

This forum is great for learning things, lots of interesting reading in past threads and the "locals" are really helpful.
I know what it is, I took up photography with the kiddies still young, it's tough to make time for it, but it's a lifesaver to have some interests outside kiddiland.

Mountainsandh

Simon.d wrote: »

I think Waterford's woodstown longphort enclosure can be seen in cropmarks here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=52.247441,-7.19627&spn=0.001987,0.005284&t=h&z=18

Hi Simon.d, just to say that I was intrigued by this, but since I have bought the book about the archeological investigation and works on the N25 and the construction of the Waterford bypass (it's an Irish name sorry I can check it out later if you need it). At the very start of the book there is a passage on the very early stages of investigation, and how they built test trenches in Woodstown. There is actually a photograph of the test trenches as well, which I think shows the features you mention.
So test trenches rather than the real thing I'd say in this case.
They did find traces of a viking settlement in that spot, and most remarkably, the skeleton of a viking buried there !

As a result the bypass was slightly redirected to avoid that area.

I'm not sure I would be allowed post the pic on here for copyright reasons, but it's a great book (albeit a bit hard going for a non-archeologist like me) and I recommend it.

checked name of book : 'Cois tSiúire- nine thousand years of human activity in the Lower Suir Valley. Archaeological excavations on the N25 Waterford City Bypass
http://rubiconblog.com/2012/02/08/book-launch-cois-tsiuire-and-rubicons-work-on-the-waterford-bypass/

Simon.d

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Hi Simon.d, just to say that I was intrigued by this, but since I have bought the book about the archeological investigation and works on the N25 and the construction of the Waterford bypass (it's an Irish name sorry I can check it out later if you need it). At the very start of the book there is a passage on the very early stages of investigation, and how they built test trenches in Woodstown. There is actually a photograph of the test trenches as well, which I think shows the features you mention.
So test trenches rather than the real thing I'd say in this case.
They did find traces of a viking settlement in that spot, and most remarkably, the skeleton of a viking buried there !

As a result the bypass was slightly redirected to avoid that area.

I'm not sure I would be allowed post the pic on here for copyright reasons, but it's a great book (albeit a bit hard going for a non-archeologist like me) and I recommend it.

checked name of book : 'Cois tSiúire- nine thousand years of human activity in the Lower Suir Valley. Archaeological excavations on the N25 Waterford City Bypass
http://rubiconblog.com/2012/02/08/book-launch-cois-tsiuire-and-rubicons-work-on-the-waterford-bypass/

I referenced that book when looking at the crop marks initially and compared their geophys results as per the following:



You can see the test trenches (The herrybone pattern) for the most part completely missed the enclosure ditch, depicted in the geophys.. The crop marks do seem to run along the ditch in my opinion..

MagicMarker

Simon.d wrote: »

Managed to find the two sites:

Here's the Triangular Plateau: https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=28.357228,30.42626&spn=0.005712,0.010568&ctz=-60&t=h&z=17

Here's The Square one: http://binged.it/P8yDiT

Damn... no street view.

Mountainsandh

Simon.d wrote: »

I referenced that book when looking at the crop marks initially and compared their geophys results as per the following:

You can see the test trenches (The herrybone pattern) for the most part completely missed the enclosure ditch, depicted in the geophys.. The crop marks do seem to run along the ditch in my opinion..

Love the gif. Do you think they might go back and continue investigations then ? or is it worth their while investigating that bit specifically ? I was amazed to read that in some cases they considered checking out interesting sites, then leaving whatever would be there in situ with the road being built above ! :eek: In this instance they didn't, because they weren't sure things would be left intact, but do they do that, just leave stuff there and build a road over if they think there won't be too much destruction ?

Mountainsandh

Actually Simon.d, I was reading the chapter on Woodstown yesterday, and to me it seems like they knew there were more bits and pieces there, but they found what they thought were the most interesting sites, outside said enclosure. There is a pretty thorough page on what's outside the enclosure, pardon my lack of knowledge about the jargon etc... but I think what they found there were the viking's grave, and a metal working spot (I think metal shaving maybe, something like that). They found traces of several types of metal. They say the place seemed to have been all set up but not actually used.
They didn't cut trenches from what I understand, but focused on 2 cutting sites only.
One of these (metalwork) was near enough to the crop marks.
They end the paragraph on this note "no other cutting outside of the enclosure produced evidence for significant early medieval activity."
It may be that they were very close must missed a spot