google maps

Archaeologists from USC, UCLA and the Middle East have developed a searchable online map that details 7,000 archeological sites on the West Bank and Jerusalem - many of them never publicy disclosed. The map - an effort to identify Israeli archaeological activity since 1967, when Israel took over the West Bank and East Jerusalem - is freely accesibly online at the USC's Digital Library.

Built over several years through hundreds of hours of research, bolstered by freedom of information requests and, when necessary, a lawsuit in Israeli courts, the Web site provides interactive satellite maps showing locations of about 7,000 archaeological sites in the region, including:

Other than Stonehenge and the newly discovered Bluehenge, there are other henges across the lenght and breath of Great Britain, as Ann Morgan explained in her post a couple of months back.

A recent article here on Heritage Key by Bija Knowles looked at Roman sites across the South East of France. There are many sites across the area which remain today as relics to the Roman past, the empire having controlled the area as early as 125BC.

The map shows the triangle area between the towns of Nimes, Arles and Orange where many of the heritage sites reside, but also includes Lyon which also has many notable Roman settlement relics.

Using this interactive map, you can see the exact locations of these sites, and easily plan your (real or fantasy) trip through Roman France.

Archaeologists have invented a new online game - 'When On Google Earth' - using satellite images from Google  to test each other's archaeological savvy. Satellite images of archaeological sites are posted online, with the challenge of guessing where and what they are.

'When On Google Earth' has no fixed abode. Instead, the winner of each round earns the right to host the subsequent quiz. Winners so far have included archaeologists Jason Ur, from the Tell Brak project, and Dorothy King, whose offering included a couple of clues to help you narrow it down from er, anywhere on the planet to just anywhere with some connection to Gaius Marius.

Geologists are also in on the act, and seem to have broken ranks with the archaeological hardcore, bringing in new rules (no bare co-ordinates - you must state the significance of the site) and helping the game reach round number 155 in no time.

Google Maps do not display latitude and longitude values, but there is an easy & quick trick to get these numbers. This technique will provide the latitude and longitude coordinates of the center of the map displayed by Google Maps.

Looking up an address in Google Maps will center the map on that address if it was found. If you wish to navigate your Google Map later, refocus the center of your map on the exact point you want the geolocation information for, by double clicking that area of the map.

When the location you want is in the center of the map, copy and paste this code into the location bar of your browser and press enter:

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

A little dialog box will pop up displaying the coordinates which can be copied and pasted for use elsewhere. This code can be bookmarked and then used in the future by selecting the bookmark.