The results offer a promising way forward to studying the engineering prowess of old civilizations.
Because of their often ingenious design, they can be of great interest to archaeologists.
They allowed people to live in areas where it would have been unthinkable before.
These photos taken by Cold War satellites kinda make you feel like James Bond, don’t they?© Journal of Archaeological Science
But old qanats can also be hard to locate.
To solve the conundrum, the scientists decided to test out a new technique.
The AI performed admirably, analyzing photos from obsolete satellites to locate even more obsolete aqueducts.
They had a success rate of more than 88% in identifying qanats.
They expressed hope that it could be expanded to other areas once more diverse training data is incorporated.
Identifying qanats isnt just a way for some archaeologists to get material for their next arcane textbook.
The waterways are invaluable remnants of past civilizations, akin to thefamous aqueducts in Rome.
Irans qanats have even beenselectedas a World Heritage Site.
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