Extraterrestrial hissarlik: Mars as model for planetary archaeology

Although Venus and Mars have had very different evolutionary histories from Earth, in which the development of complex life and civilisation is extremely improbable, as terrestrial worlds their present conditions may anticipate those on Earth analogues on which extraterrestrial civilisations have arisen, only to become extinct due to global environmental causes. An examination of the geographical factors in the origin and development of civilisation on Earth with comparable locations on Mars may indicate probable areas on other earth-like worlds where civilisations have arisen, while the search for life on Mars offers the opportunity for the development of archaeological techniques which, added to those of terrestrial archaeology, may prove beneficial for the future investigation of such worlds, including a methodology for distinguishing artificial from natural objects. Furthermore, archaeological investigation of desert civilisations on Earth based on atmospheric moisture rather than rainfall may offer useful technologies to future terraformers of the Red Planet.