5000-YEAR-OLD CIVILISATION DISCOVERED UNDERNEATH LARGEST DESERT IN THE WORLD
Artificial intelligence has led to the discovery of a civilisation beneath Saudi Arabia's dunes. A group of academics from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi found it after creating an amazing machine-learning algorithm that helps them navigate the vast Rub al-Khali, also referred to as the "Empty Quarter." It is the world's largest continuous sand region, covering over 250,000 square miles in the Arabian Peninsula. The archaeological site of Saruq Al-Hadid, which we now know contains evidence of human activity dating back 5,000 years, is located in the wide desert.
So how did they manage to uncover such an incredible find? In order to "automate and improve the recognition and mapping of archaeological structures in the UAE and other arid locations," the researchers themselves devised an innovative method that combines artificial intelligence with satellite photography. "The main goal of our research was to help the UAE find archaeological sites and features that are concealed beneath the sand," noted Dr. Diana Francis, head of the college's Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Lab.
"It was logistically too challenging to examine the desert from the ground because of the temperature and the fact that a large portion of the country is desert. Satellite data was crucial for this reason. Then, we required technology that could see through the sand."
The government organisation that oversees the archeological site, Dubai Culture, declared last year that it would begin excavation in the locations that the Khalifa University team had identified. In order to shed light on the past and direct future research, the study's authors now hope that "techniques developed here could be applied to better assist archaeological research in broader areas and similar conditions." "This study is a proof-of-concept for how SAR imaging and machine learning may direct archaeological searches in a desert setting," Dr Francis continued.
"The techniques we created are effective in all dry places, and my goal is to implement them throughout the United Arab Emirates before expanding them to other arid regions in the region. Although we have not yet investigated these locations, we are aware of their cultural past. Francis, Charfeddine Cherif, Research Associate, Dr Steve Griffiths, Professor of Practice and SVP Research and Development, and Dr Hosni Ghedira, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, worked on the study with Prof. Kosmas Pavlopoulos and Dr Haifa Ben-Romdhane, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
