Lost civilizations, found by drones

Beneath the barren New Mexican desert, there are remnants of an ancient Pueblo society that thrived some 1,000 years ago. John Kantner, an archaeologist from the University of North Florida, has surveyed the red sands for 20 years in search of ancient religious structures called kivas. Similar to small family chapels, kivas were circular rooms where members of the Chaco group went to perform ceremonies and rituals. Located under the household, the small spaces were buried and filled with soil as centuries passed.

Kantner had uncovered some kivas during his two decades in the desert, but searching for the subterranean structures on foot was difficult and time consuming. He, like many other archaeologists, decided to use technology that is revolutionizing his field: drones.

A buried archaeological feature retains heat differently than the surrounding soil. So Katner used drone surveillance along with thermal imaging to key in on subtle temperature differences while the structure heats and cools. He teamed up with Jesse Casana, an archaeologist from the University of Arkansas who had previously equipped aerial machines with thermal imaging technology for archeological research in Cyprus and Iraq. (Although thermal imaging has been around for decades, pairing it with drone technology is new.)

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