LiDAR

LiDAR is a technology where you fly expensive equipment in a grid pattern over an area. Millions of pulsed laser beams penetrate the forest canopy and bounce off structures below to create a highly accurate 3-D map of the surface. This digital imaging technique is revolutionizing Mesoamerican archaeology where important ruins lie concealed beneath jungle or forest.

Guatemalan LiDAR Data after Rendering and Graphical Processing

Richard Hansen's Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya (PACUNAM) just went public with the results of the largest LiDAR survey ever attempted for archaeological research. It mapped 10 tracts totaling 2,100 square kilometers in the Mirador Basin and other areas of northern Guatemala. The surveyed area is less than half the size of Utah County. And what did archaeologists find buried in the Peten?

• 60,000 previously unknown structures
• vast networks of highways elevated so they functioned even in the rainy season 
• ubiquitous fortresses, ramparts, and defensive walls
• waterworks including dikes, dams, canals, and reservoirs
• agricultural terraces with irrigation systems
• animal pens
• stone quarries

It will take decades to study so many new sites, but settlement patterns and big picture insights are already apparent.

• Population in the Maya lowlands at apogee was closer to 15 million than 5 million
• Maya civilization was much more complex than previously thought
• Maya cities were more interconnected than anyone realized
• Food production was on an industrial scale
• Many people lived in swampy areas
• Endemic warfare was the norm over centuries

This northern Guatemalan LiDAR project will continue in phases, eventually mapping more than 5,000 square kilometers (about the size of Utah County). At that point it will have mapped approximately 1.4% of the ancient Maya area which covers 350,000 square kilometers (about the size of Montana).

Guatemalan LiDAR Data after Additional Graphical Processing

LiDAR in archaeology is like the Hubble Telescope in astronomy.