Pop culture has painted an Indiana Jones like image of archaeology for many people. And while the Indian Jones films were highly entertaining and made the study of archaeology somewhat popular, they are, after all, just movies. Still, archaeology is very important for us in the modern world to understand how we got to where we are today. As acclaimed British archaeologist Michael Shanks said, “Archaeology is about our relationships with what is left of the past.” Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at Harvard University, Kate Rose, has dedicated her study of archaeology to understand the relationships of gender and power status found in ancient burial grounds.

Studying the way people were buried in ancient times can help establish how our modern social constructs developed. To do her research, Kate doesn’t simply dig up the ground, she has an array of modern technological tools that allow her to get detailed information on ancient burial sites without disturbing the real people buried there. One of the best tools now available to archaeologists is drones because they can capture a bird’s eye view of a possible excavation site. With the aerial images, specific plans can be made as to where to begin digging. Also, drones can be equipped with ground-penetrating sensors so that an archaeologist can understand what is below the earth before breaking ground.

To fully take advantage of drone technology in the field of archaeology, Kate became a licensed drone pilot. She could venture out to her sites, like Jebel Barkal in Sudan, without needing to hire a drone pilot. As a trained archaeologist, she can send up the drone and through the controller’s monitor, know exactly what to look for. At the Sudanese ancient cemetery of El-Kurru, Kate’s drone imagery gave her and the other archaeologist at the site a detailed map of how the burial plots were arranged. From the ground, this is something that would simply not be visible. The other option would be to hire an expensive plane or helicopter to take the images.

Recently, Kate learned that using drones can go beyond helping her study archaeology. They could also help her engage with prospective archaeologists on a whole new level. In January of 2021, the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture began a program bringing together university students with grade school students across the United States. The program had a dual purpose of demystifying a major university like Harvard and the obscure study of archaeology to young children. At the same time, it gave the Harvard students a chance to hone their presentation and teaching skills, a key aspect of their training. “One of the biggest challenges for us student archaeologists is talking to diverse audiences about our research,” Kate said. “This is good practice and helps broaden how we relate to our own research. Sharing with kids and teachers gives our own projects more meaning.”

And what Kate discovered is that the use of drones in her research resonated with the students she was lecturing via 30 minute long Zoom calls. “I was excited to share my work, which uses drones and new technology to find and record sites in Sudan,” Kate said. “The kids have a concept of drones now that you can find them in toy stores, and some kids had even flown drones themselves. So, I was able to relate that to science and archaeology, and to 3D models that we use to experience the site in an accurate way.”

Over the last decade, drones have changed the way archaeologists study the past and how it relates to our present and future. The virtual presentations that Kate and her fellow graduate students made were able to engage a new generation in the interests of archaeology. Harvard received a lot of positive feedback on the program from the children and teachers. The programs may not have been as entertaining as watching an Indiana Jones movie, but they realistically showed how the past can still be exciting when discovered through the lens of a drone.