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A New Massive Ancient Maya Civilization was Just Discovered
Scientists used LiDAR technology to find it
Conversations about technological advancements usually look toward the future. Whether by extending our lifespans and curing diseases or relocating our species to another planet if/when we destroy this one beyond survivability. But one relatively recent technological invention is kinda used to look in the opposite direction — our past.
LiDAR technology reveals ancient cities hidden beneath dense vegetation and overgrowth. Using LiDAR, scientists can discover, protect, and excavate our ancient past without unintentionally destroying it. LiDAR has already exposed thousands of ancient Mayan structures throughout South America, and now it has uncovered another one, and it’s massive.
What is LiDAR?
I wrote about LiDAR before, but it’s worth a recap. If you don’t know, LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging and was developed in the 1980s after lasers were invented and the Global Positioning System (GPS) became widely available.
Typically, a LiDAR system sends hundreds of thousands of laser pulses toward the ground from an airplane or helicopter, then measures how long it takes for the beams to bounce back from objects on the surface — such as treetops, the ground, or structures.
You’re correct if you think LiDAR sounds similar to sonar. Sonar technology is the same basic concept, except instead of lasers, sonar pulses soundwaves to map the ocean floor. The result of both technologies is a three-dimensional map of an environment’s topography. Marcello Canuto, anthropology professor and director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University, uses a great example to understand LiDAR better:
“Imagine you’re in Poughkeepsie, (New York), and that’s all you can see, but you might catch this thing that we call the turnpike, right, but everything else is covered in jungle … you’ll have no idea that this turnpike might connect New York with Philadelphia. LiDAR is telling us everything that we found archaeologically over the last 100 years, here and there, is found everywhere … LiDAR lets us connect all the dots.”
