Sarah Parcak Quotes

I think archaeologists are stuck, and we are losing our past at a very rapid rate. Tens of thousands of sites will be lost, and we've only unveiled a tiny percent of the past.

We are the only ones who really can care about the preservation Foreigners who come to excavate, maybe some of them care about preservation, but the majority care about discoveries.

We want to excite the world about what's out there. But we don't want them to say, 'Oh, there are lots of sites in Egypt - let's loot.'

With population pressures, urbanization, and modernization encroaching, we're in a race against time. Why not use the most advanced tools we have to map, quantify, and protect our past?

It's absolutely critical, you know, to train young men and women not just to find sites, but also to protect sites, especially in the wake of the Arab Spring. There's been significant site-looting in Egypt and elsewhere across the Middle East.

I think Star City should have Unesco World Heritage status. It will need to be adapted a little bit and made more glamorous than it looks now, but it should definitely be protected for the future.

Tourists as well as natives want to see cultural achievements - whether it's the Banaue Terraces, the old churches or museums.

This country, and the West Coast, especially, is bad at preserving any cultural legacy.

An important part of what the state does is preserving its history.

Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba'athist regime.

Our ancient historical monuments are national property and ought no longer to be left to the mercy of the many and variable ideas of ecclesiastical propriety that may at any time be prevalent among us

We only have a limited amount of time left before many archaeological sites all over the world are destroyed. So we have to be really selective about where we dig.

There are huge pluses in Scottish archaeology that you simply don't get elsewhere. Partly that's to do with the tragedy of the clearances, and that so much of the landscape has been owned by so few people that didn't want it messed around with.

If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.

It is very difficult to hang onto the relics of history.

These places, and the ancient things you know, You won't know soon. I'm working on it now.'

You don't let a historic site rot.

In Japan, there is less a culture of preserving old buildings than in Europe.

Much has been said and continues to be said of what little concern the Turks had for the Acropolis treasures.

You re being handed a national treasure. Your main responsibility is that whenever you may leave it, it still remains a national treasure.

My parents did not want us to lose our culture and our language. And that was a good thing.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is something that is very necessary for the creative process. There's a couple of brothers running around New York, trying to buy up the cultural places, who shall remain nameless. Well, there's a lot of brothers - pick any two. Pin the tail on the... they want to buy up stuff and steer the country a certain way.

Looting and site destruction are global problems. We have a tough road ahead, and one key will be developing more collaborations and using new technologies like satellite imagery.

Looting has an immense impact on our ability to understand our global cultural heritage; once these objects are gone, so too is our chance of piecing together humanity's shared story.

I am honored to receive the TED Prize, but it's not about me; it's about our field - and the thousands of men and women around the world, particularly in the Middle East, who are defending and protecting sites.