Google Earth Helps Find Ancient Ruins

This via BoingBoing:

"Alex sez, "A computer programmer found a Roman ruin near his home in Italy when he was playing around with Google Earth & Google Maps."

His eye was caught by unusual 'rectangular shadows' nearby. Curious, he analysed the image further, and concluded that the lines must represent a buried structure of human origin. Eventually, he traced out what looked like the inner courtyards of a villa.

Mori, who describes the finding on his blog, Quellí Della Bassa, contacted archaeologists, including experts at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma. They confirmed the find. At first it was thought to be a Bronze Age village, but an inspection of the site turned up ceramic pieces that indicated it was a Roman villa."

The story was originally found at News at Nature.com, the Best in Science Journalism, a pretty interesting site.

So now how many of you are off to play with Google Earth and Google Maps to see if you've got any ancient ruins in your backyard?