April 2, 2008

• UAB professor on Discovery Channel April 6

BIRMINGHAM, Ala - University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) assistant professor of anthropology Sarah Parcak, Ph.D., will appear in the upcoming Discovery Channel special, "Why Ancient Egypt Fell," which debuts 10 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 6.

Parcak, an Egyptologist who teaches in the UAB Department of Anthropology and Social Work, will discuss how she locates ancient Egyptian sites, known as tells, using satellite remote sensing. Footage for the film featuring Parcak was shot on location in the Nile Delta, Luxor and Aswan.

The one-hour documentary examines the possible causes behind Egypt's downfall. The Discovery Channel notes that "Select images from NASA, along with global climate models and mapping reveal how changes half a world away triggered a chain of events that destroyed ancient Egypt." The film also captures the challenges of field research.

Parcak, a native of Bangor, Maine, earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University in 2001 and her master's and doctoral degrees in Egyptian archeology from Cambridge University in 2002 and 2005 respectively.

Other air dates for the documentary are listed at www.dsc.discovery.com.