Justin Walsh and Shawn Graham are launching a new project — Archaeology Impossible — that looks at the things humans leave behind on Mount Everest.
Archaeologists study the International Space Station and Everest to figure out ‘how humans adapt in this impossible place where we have no business going’
Archaeologists are turning their attention and research skills to far-flung places on the Earth and beyond, discovering new information about how humans survive in extreme environments.
Most archaeologists study the things that past people left behind to recreate a picture of a bygone culture. Researchers are now applying those same archaeological techniques to more modern — and extreme — environments.
Justin Walsh, an archaeologist at Chapman University in California, is an innovator in the field of “space archaeology,” or the study of human activity in the space environment, defined as 100 kilometers [62 miles] above Earth and beyond. Since the founding of the ISS Archaeological Project in 2015, Walsh has been studying how astronauts experience the International Space Station. Shawn Graham, a digital archaeologist at Carleton University in Canada, joined the project in 2023.
Now, Walsh and Graham are launching a new project — Archaeology Impossible — that looks at the things humans leave behind on Mount Everest. Live Science spoke with the duo about their ISS work and about why humans are obsessed with conquering extreme environments, like the highest spot on Earth.