New laser mapping technology reveals "sprawling" Mayan complex

BBC News Source

The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten. Archaeologists believe the cutting-edge technology will change the way the world will see Mayans' ancient civilisation. "I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology," said Stephen Houston, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Brown University. Mr Houston told the BBC that after decades of work in the archaeological field, he found the magnitude of the recent survey "breathtaking". He added, "I know it sounds hyperbolic but when I saw the [Lidar] imagery, it did bring tears to my eyes."

They mention that there must have been millions more Maya in the region that previously estimated.

Super impressive find for a super impressive technology. I am really looking forward to what else it could be used for. Maybe mapping coast lines for evidence of human settlements before the sea-level rise? Lots of possibilities!

ETA: Ancient and lost civilizations are one of my favorite topics. I hope this spurs more use of this technology and maybe, just maybe, acts as a bit of a nudge to established academic archaeologists to consider that our technological advances might just be leagues ahead of their current methods and understanding.

That's supper cool

The Mayans were bad *ATS EDIT*. Personally, I think if the Europeans didn't come over to the Americans, they Mayans would, in time, have concord all of the americas

I eagerly await the discovery that the Mayans didn't build these ancient structures. Didn't the Mayans tell the first spanish conquistadors that these structures were already there before they moved into the area?

Thank you for sharing this.



a reply to: OrdoAdChao

a reply to: mikegrouchy

Thanks mikegrouchy! Appreciate the extra polish!

a reply to: ClovenSky

It's a very interesting situation. By many accounts, they precisely did that. Of course, translation was probably vague at best. But, the accounts are there.

ETA: From the source article:

"With this new data it's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there," said Mr Estrada-Belli, "including many living in low-lying, swampy areas that many of us had thought uninhabitable."

That's an amazing number of people to have in the square mileage. That many people in an area smaller thank Rhode Island is insane. Especially a 1000 years ago, give or take. That's the rough official number for the Mayan Civilization. I think that will change.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

This is pretty cool news!!

There is so much stuff under the jungle. Makes one wonder what is under the sands in Egypt...

And it is touching to hear the find "brought tears to [his] eyes"!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Egypt, Turkey, hell even Canada! I am pretty much on the "lost civilization" wagon. I don't think they had space-age level tech or even much in the way of what we think of as modern industry. But they had a lot of knowledge, which suggests to me they had a form of writing.

I guess I get this idea due to some interesting facts of ancient architecture and building technology. Take Gobekli Tepe for example. I do suppose that an Einstein level human could have been born and their group jumped ahead in stone building and carving techniques. But, it makes more sense that Gobekli Tepe was as much of a pinnacle for its time as it was a beginning for later monolith building societies. That suggests that we should be finding more crude versions in that same area, but due to the nature of the place (It's in Turkey) there are a lot of hurdles for widespread archeological study.

Another interesting archeology tool is satellites.

Sarah Parcak used satellites to find lost cities in Egypt.

a reply to: grey580

Wow, that was excellent! Thanks for the addition. Pretty amazing how they used differences in chemical composition on the first site. Very clever!

I really hope we can use this stuff to try to get a clearer picture of our history. So many gaps could be filled and questions answered.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

"super impressive technology" ... thanks for posting.

amazing find. when i was a kid my dad took us to tikal. being too young i didnt then realize how cool that place actually was. neat to find that when i was there there was so much stuff hidden there than met the eye that nobody knew about.

also Tikal was used for the rebel base on Yavin 4. wonder if the lasers will find the tomb of Exar Kun.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

That and India, too! Looks like water levels rose sinking them under the sea (Lord Krishna's city?? Something like that).

We keep getting news stories like, "humans out of Africa earlier than expected" and "evidence of glass made earlier than expected". Now the Mayans had bigger populations than we knew of.

Make me wonder what we are being led to?? What will be the "big announcement"?


Exciting times!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Oh yeah, India would be mind-blowing! So would Indonesia, if anything has survived the ocean, hopefully we'll find evidence of it.

I agree, not only are we getting the news stories, archaeology seems to be legitimately advancing in discoveries more and more. It's been much less "reinforcement" of the past 40ish years of a staunch "classicalism" and sticking to the script, if you will.

ETA: I hope it leads to, at the very least, a new "open mindedness" when it comes to archaeological discovery. I don't mean let your brain fall out open mindedness, but we have to keep searching and the controllers of the current narrative needs to be open to these kinds of discoveries and take great care to enforce and encourage proper research.

a reply to: lunarcartographer

I think I see what you did there, judging by the credentials in your sig. I just heard of this tech and didn't realize its legacy!

Thank YOU!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: OrdoAdChao

That and India, too! Looks like water levels rose sinking them under the sea (Lord Krishna's city?? Something like that).

We keep getting news stories like, "humans out of Africa earlier than expected" and "evidence of glass made earlier than expected". Now the Mayans had bigger populations than we knew of.

Make me wonder what we are being led to?? What will be the "big announcement"?


Exciting times!

It will come from Antarctica
way to many rumors coming from their

originally posted by: OrdoAdChao
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Egypt, Turkey, hell even Canada! I am pretty much on the "lost civilization" wagon. I don't think they had space-age level tech or even much in the way of what we think of as modern industry. But they had a lot of knowledge, which suggests to me they had a form of writing.

I guess I get this idea due to some interesting facts of ancient architecture and building technology. Take Gobekli Tepe for example. I do suppose that an Einstein level human could have been born and their group jumped ahead in stone building and carving techniques. But, it makes more sense that Gobekli Tepe was as much of a pinnacle for its time as it was a beginning for later monolith building societies. That suggests that we should be finding more crude versions in that same area, but due to the nature of the place (It's in Turkey) there are a lot of hurdles for widespread archeological study.

Don't forget, they estimate only about 5% of Gobekli Tape has been excavated so far. There's still tons to be unearthed which will most likely have tales to tell among the carvings.

Great thread!

originally posted by: OrdoAdChao
BBC News Source

The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten. Archaeologists believe the cutting-edge technology will change the way the world will see Mayans' ancient civilisation. "I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology," said Stephen Houston, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Brown University. Mr Houston told the BBC that after decades of work in the archaeological field, he found the magnitude of the recent survey "breathtaking". He added, "I know it sounds hyperbolic but when I saw the [Lidar] imagery, it did bring tears to my eyes."

They mention that there must have been millions more Maya in the region that previously estimated.

Super impressive find for a super impressive technology. I am really looking forward to what else it could be used for. Maybe mapping coast lines for evidence of human settlements before the sea-level rise? Lots of possibilities!

ETA: Ancient and lost civilizations are one of my favorite topics. I hope this spurs more use of this technology and maybe, just maybe, acts as a bit of a nudge to established academic archaeologists to consider that our technological advances might just be leagues ahead of their current methods and understanding.

LIDAR has been discussed here a few years back after the original Amazon mapping projects.

There are 3 discussions back to this in 2010

www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread972509/pg