OP here: I posted it because there was some woo versions of it posted in 'new' on HN, and this was the source document but the original title wouldn't fit in the 80 char HN limit. I've seen it show up around X as well, and figured this would be the place to assess the value of the original document.
In the acknowledgements it also states: "We also thank the Italian Space Agency for providing the SAR data." which was interesting because, if they had in fact done this, there's a diplomatic and culture angle on doing archeology by other means like this without the the host country's permission.
If it's a hoax, it's as persuasive as any other irreproducible result in the social sciences. If it's not a hoax, it's pretty interesting.
Edit: there's a version of this on arxiv from August 2022 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00811) so there's definitely something suspicious about it now. happy to delete, or really, what would motivate that effort.
In the acknowledgements it also states: "We also thank the Italian Space Agency for providing the SAR data." which was interesting because, if they had in fact done this, there's a diplomatic and culture angle on doing archeology by other means like this without the the host country's permission.
If it's a hoax, it's as persuasive as any other irreproducible result in the social sciences. If it's not a hoax, it's pretty interesting.
Edit: there's a version of this on arxiv from August 2022 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00811) so there's definitely something suspicious about it now. happy to delete, or really, what would motivate that effort.