THE MOST SIGNIFICANT
DEVELOPMENTS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

in the last 25 years are new discoveries, new technologies, and new ways in which people approach the past. Ground-penetrating radar, satellite images, and magnetometry help identify sites and give outlines of buildings and the layout of towns without disturbing the soil, while CT scanning and other imaging technologies help to study mummies nondestructively. New scientific techniques have helped identify different materials used in mummification and have helped identify the components of paints, glues, and other materials. The increased exploitation of ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology helps clarify not only the nitty-gritty of daily life and technology but also social structures and nuances in human relationships.

The next 25 years will see more scientific techniques developed: Work on ancient DNA will advance sufficiently to trace diseases and family relationships in mummies, and increasingly sensitive ground-penetrating devices might lead to undisturbed or undiscovered tombs (Alexander the Great’s?) and towns or aid exploration in remote areas, such as Egypt’s Western Desert, which might link the archaeology of the African continent together more coherently from the Paleolithic to the pharaonic past.

Salima Ikram, associate professor, Department of Egyptology, American University in Cairo