Google Earth Used to Find Ancient Roman Villa

cavehobbit writes "Google Earth leads to an archeology find, according to a Nature article. From the article: 'Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river ...' What's buried in your back yard?"

Comments

Here you go

[SlayerofGods]

In case you don't want to learn Italian
linkage

my backyard?

[polysylabic psudonym]

Not much to be found here. The Romans didn't find their way here, nor the Greeks, nor the Vikings. No populations with higher technology than the boomerang, spear and woomera (that's the spear throwing tool, rather than the rocket range) here until the 18th century, and those pre-european people weren't much into building buildings of the sort that leave a trace. Even our own civilisation's ruins top out at 200 odd years old, and around where I live only to about 80 years old.

Re:my backyard?

[donscarletti]

I'd suggest you stop looking. If you were to find a big pile of shells, your house would be considered both an archaeological site and a sacred place that would be regulated as such.

They are called middens and they are basically dumping grounds for used shellfish eaten by a community. In areas were there was no rock painting, they are the only perminent evidence of settlement.

You do not want to find one of those things where you live.

link to villa

[Polo]

I think this link should show the villa:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.881446,10.421513 &spn=0.007150,0.007532&t=k&hl=en

Link to the exact location

[YA_Python_dev]

Yah I just noticed I linked to the map view rather then the satellite view.

Yeah, right. FYI this is the link to the exact location.

Re:Kettle meet Pot!

[Skreems]

You, sir, are fucking hilarious :-)

Keyhole/Google Earth location file

[jgaynor]

I made up a quick-n-dirty keyhole file of the place:

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~jgaynor/random/slashdo t-09-16-05.kmz

For the paranoid, feel free to save it and then open it up from within Google Earth. For the rest of us just launch it directly.

Re:I found something I'd lost with Google Earth

[CuBr]

Linkified:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.376078,-71.12621 8&spn=0.004510,0.008827&t=k&hl=en

Google Maps doesn't have the resolution

[dlleigh]

You have to use Google Earth to get the nice six inch resolution which allows you to see the dish.

Re:I found something I'd lost with Google Earth

[RollingThunder]

The easiest way I find is to just take out the "d", at least under Google Earth.

Once that's gone, it's recognized as lat/long.

USAPhotoMaps and MSN Virtual Earth

[donutello]

USAPhotoMaps is excellent for downloading and viewing USGS topo maps. The interface is terrible and clunky to use but once you figure it out, it's awesome. It also has a database of USGS landmarks that you can use. I use it when planning hiking trips.

I know we hate Microsoft here but VirtualEarth has much higher resolution pictures of many areas. In general, I've found that once you're outside the major metropolitan areas MSNs maps are much better than Google's.