Satellite evidence of archaeological site looting in Egypt: 2002–2013 Sarah Parcak 1 , David Gathings 1 , Chase Childs 1 , Greg Mumford 1 & Eric Cline 2 Cairo 0 km 500 N Analysis of satellite imagery covering Egypt between 2002 and 2013 indicates a sig- nificant increase in looting and other damage to archaeological sites. Looting escalated dramatically from 2009 with the onset of the global economic crisis, and intensified still further with the Arab Spring in 2011. This was mirrored by an increased volume of Egyptian artefacts sold at auction, suggesting that looting is driven by external demand as well as by internal economic pressures. Satellite analysis can be used to predict the type and period of antiquities entering the market, thereby providing valuable intelligence for international policing of the illicit antiquities trade. Keywords: Egypt, satellite remote-sensing, looting, encroachment, illicit antiquities, Arab Spring Introduction Small-scale looting has been a hallmark of cultural heritage theft in Egypt for thousands of years. The intensity and frequency of looting in Egypt and worldwide have, however, increased in recent years, far beyond previous levels. Our data, presented here, indicate that significant spikes in looting within Egypt started in 2009, in connection with the global economic crisis, and were exacerbated by the chaos of the 2011 Arab Spring (Mackenzie & Davis 2014). The results from our analysis, compared with economic data from the World Bank and the Central Bank of Egypt, demonstrates that looting is fundamentally economic in origin. As desperation grows among local populations, many people turn to looting, attracted by the demand from a growing global antiquities market (Brodie & Tubb 1 Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1401 University Boulevard, Birmingham AL 35205, USA (Email: sparcak@uab.edu) 2 Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, George Washington University, 801 22 nd Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20052, USA C  Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 ANTIQUITY 90 349 (2016): 188–205 doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.1 188