Mapping the Mayans: LiDAR reveals new contours of a complex civilization. From the article:

Nestled in the jungle of northern Guatemala, a vast network of interconnected Maya settlements built millennia ago has been mapped in unprecedented detail.

The civilization featured towering pyramids, palaces, terraces, ball courts and reservoirs connected by a sprawling web of causeways, an international group of archaeologists reported during a presentation at Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City this month. 

Their findings reveal a “level of infrastructure that is just mind-boggling,” said Dr. Timothy Beach, a professor of geography at the University of Texas at Austin who wasn’t involved in the research.

The archaeologists identified nearly 1,000 Maya settlements, which they said were mostly built between 1,000 B.C. and 150 A.D. The findings, also detailed in a paper published last month in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, were made possible by airborne laser mapping technology that can penetrate the jungle canopy. They challenge some previously held ideas that this part of Mesoamerica, which archaeologists call the Maya lowlands, was sparsely populated during that period….

“We had no idea of the concentration and density of ancient cities out there,” said Richard Hansen, an Idaho State University archaeologist and lead author of the study…. The findings, Dr. Hansen said, “tell a story of the rise and precocious development of an incredibly organized, sophisticated society.”…

The technology works like radar except that laser beams rather than radio waves are used to locate and map objects. The beams reflect back from objects on the ground to sensors on an aircraft. Software interprets the signals to produce three-dimensional maps showing settlements stripped of vegetation.

For other related posts on LiDar and ancient civilizations, see here and here. 

For the scientific research article, see here.