In the 1880s, British explorers began applying scientific rigor to excavating ancient cultural sites. The field of archaeology is a frustrating, low, costly, and often dangerous endeavor requiring patience and a good bit of luck. The Earth is remarkably good at keeping secrets and erasing the story of human endeavors. Changing rivers, floods, volcanoes, dust storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and other events swallow entire cities into the surrounding landscape, and we lose them to the flow of time.
Our knowledge of human history is based on glimpses into ancient cultures through archaeological excavation and the study of sites we have been lucky enough to stumble across through educated guesses or trial and error. There used to be no success in archaeology unless a team excavated a site, found something, and correctly identified it. Predictions...