Archaeologists are surpassing previously accepted boundaries of discovery and exploration thanks to new technology such as drones and digital cameras.

Moath Alofi is an artist, researcher, and explorer in the Medina Province of Saudi Arabia who has been employing new tech to explore and document the region in ways previously not possible.

He created this stunning video of ancient burial sites in the Saudi desert with the help of a high-resolution camera onboard a powerful drone.

The sites, known as desert kites, are constructed out of rocks and date back many thousands of years to potentially the Neolithic period. The structures are thought to be burial places or tombs but other theories for their existence include villages and animal herding compounds.

They were first discovered in the 1920’s by WWII pilots. Later during the Cold War, spy planes started documenting the phenomena and the public’s imagination was captured.

New aerial surveys and satellite images made location data more accessible and research teams such as the one joined by Moath have set out to discover more about them.

“I’m just an amateur who really got the thrill of discovering and hunting these ancient stone structures in Saudi Arabia,” says Moath in an interview with Real Press. “As part of my involvement in this I provide researchers and other institutions with high-resolution images when they need it.

“But I did find a lot of interesting discoveries for myself, and drones helped to find and actually comprehend them.

“Some of these findings are not totally new discoveries but with the drone we got some good high resolution images that we couldn’t really obtain before.”

Moath’s artistic and entrepreneurial background has spurred his focus on new tech. After gaining a degree in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development from an Australian university he returned home to Medina and found a love of photography fostered new interest in the region and triggered his exploration and research pursuits.

“My focus, when it comes to this field, is new tech and thinking of applications and programs regarding reading inscriptions and any engraved relics.”

But my focus is also in drones as one of the most important technologies to enable new discoveries and help amateurs and academics gain a better understanding of the new findings.

“It’s definitely more advanced than ten years ago and we are seeing new items and gadgets all the time, but still I think there is more that can be done.”

And new technology, he adds, will lead this field forward.