In Search of Genghis Khan
AEvery day, people use the Internet to share information. One special type of information sharing is called “crowdsourcing”. When scientists or other people crowdsource, they ask a large number of people to help with a project.
BA team of scientists in the United States and Mongolia is using crowdsourcing to answer an 800-year-old mystery. The team is looking for the tomb of the Mongol leader Genghis Khan. At the time of his death in 1227, Genghis Khan ruled one of the largest empires in history. But there are many mysteries about his life and death. One of the unanswered questions is: Where is Genghis Khan’s tomb?
CScientists believe Genghis Khan lies in a hidden grave somewhere in the BurkhanKhaldun. This 7,500-square-mile area of Mongolia is difficult to get to. It is also too large to study on the ground. So the team uses satellite images of the area. There are over 85,000 images, however, so the scientists need some help.
DMore than 7,000 “citizen scientists” around the world are helping in the search. People help by logging on to a website. Then they label landmarks on very detailed satellite images of the area. The landmarks might be roads, rivers, modern structures, or old structures. They also label anything unusual as “other”.
EHumans can often do this kind of work better than computers, says project leader Albert Lin. “What a computer can’t do is look for ‘weird things,’” he says. For example, a place labeled as “other” might be a clue to Genghis Khan’s tomb. Lin’s team uses this information to decide the best places to study.
FHow successful is the crowdsourcing project? Recently, the team found three interesting sites. One was a 3,000-year-old tomb. The second was a later tomb, but not Genghis Khan’s. And the third site was a 13th-century Mongolian temple. So far, Genghis Khan’s tomb is still hidden. But Lin still hopes to find an answer to this great mystery of the past.
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