The Use of LiDAR in Understanding the Ancient Maya Landscape

Abstract

A major impediment to full reconstruction and characterization of ancient Maya civilization has been a persistent inability to adequately define the scope of ancient settlement. Because Maya ruins were usually located in areas of dense jungle, it was difficult to not only see but also to map and understand both the spatial extent of their ancient cities and the magnitude of their environmental ABSTRACT The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has revolutionized our understanding of the spatial dynamics of the ancient Maya. This technology has enabled researchers to successfully demonstrate the large-scale human modifications made to the ancient tropical landscape, providing insight on broader regional settlement. Before the advent of this laser-based technology, heavily forested cover prevented full coverage and documentation of Maya sites. Mayanists could not fully recover or document the extent of ancient occupation and could never be sure how representative their mapped and excavated samples were relative to ancient settlement. Employing LiDAR in tropical and subtropical environments, like that of the Maya, effectively provides ground, as well as forest cover information, leading to a much fuller documentation of the complexities involved in the ancient human-nature interface. Airborne LiDAR was first flown over a 200 km 2 area of the archaeological site of Caracol, Belize, in April 2009. In April and May 2013 an additional 1,057 km 2 were flown with LiDAR, permitting the contextualization of the city of Caracol within its broader region and polity. The use of this technology has transformed our understanding of regional archaeology in the Maya area.El uso de LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) instalado en un avión y sobrevolando el oeste de Belice en América Central, ha revolucionado nuestra comprensión de la din·mica espacial de los antiguos mayas y ha ayudado significativamente a establecer comparaciones con otras civilizaciones tropicales. Esta tecnologÌa ha permitido a investigadores demostrar con éxito las modificaciones humanas a gran escala realizadas en el antiguo paisaje tropical, revelando información sobre los patrones de asentamiento de una amplia región. La densidad y la extensión de la ocupación documentada por el LiDAR tienen implicaciones para los modelos sociales y polÌticos de la época cl·sica maya (550-900 d.C.). Antes de la llegada de esta tecnologÌa basada en l·ser, la densa cubierta forestal impedÌa la cobertura completa y la documentación de los lugares arqueológicos mayas. Mayanistas no podÌan recuperar plenamente o documentar el grado de ocupación antigua y nunca podÌan estar seguros de cu·n representativas eran sus muestras mapeadas y excavadas en relación al antiguo asentamiento. El empleo de LiDAR en ambientes tropicales y subtropicales, como el de los mayas, nos ofrece de manera efectiva información del terreno, tanto como la de la cubierta forestal, lo que lleva a una documentación mucho m·s completa de las complejidades involuc...

Using Airborne LiDAR Survey to explore Historic-era archaeological landscapes of Montserrat in the Eastern Caribbean

“…To date, the majority of archaeological research projects involving airborne LiDAR have been undertaken in northern and western Europe (Opitz and Cowley 2013). However, the dramatic results of airborne LiDAR mapping at the Maya settlement of El Caracol in Belize and other Mesoamerican sites (Chase et al 2011(Chase et al , 2014Rosenswig et al 2013), coupled with the increase in publicly-accessible USGS LiDAR data in the United States (Pluckhahn and Thompson 2012;Randall 2014), are certain to increase the pace of LiDAR integration internationally in the near future. This trend is already evident in the growing scope (Chase et al 2014) and number of projects utilizing LiDAR in North, Central, and South America.…”

“…However, the dramatic results of airborne LiDAR mapping at the Maya settlement of El Caracol in Belize and other Mesoamerican sites (Chase et al 2011(Chase et al , 2014Rosenswig et al 2013), coupled with the increase in publicly-accessible USGS LiDAR data in the United States (Pluckhahn and Thompson 2012;Randall 2014), are certain to increase the pace of LiDAR integration internationally in the near future. This trend is already evident in the growing scope (Chase et al 2014) and number of projects utilizing LiDAR in North, Central, and South America. Based on a thorough review of the published literature, the integration of airborne LiDAR as part of the survey and mapping of Montserrat's archaeological landscape is, to the best of our knowledge, the first application of airborne LiDAR for archaeological purposes anywhere in the Caribbean archipelago.…”

Imaging the Waters of Angkor: A Method for Semi‐Automated Pond Extraction from LiDAR Data

“…We now recognize however that this is not a purely modern phenomenon. Recent research, including aerial and satellite reconnaissance and archaeological prospection on an unprecedented scale worldwideparticularly in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Mesoamerica (Fletcher et al, 2004;Fletcher, 2009)have stimulated discussion on the phenomena of low-density urbanism in the pre-industrial world (Isendahl and Smith, 2013;Chase et al, 2014aChase et al, , 2014b.…”

Archaeological Application of Airborne LiDAR with Object-Based Vegetation Classification and Visualization Techniques at the Lowland Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala

“…Since the groundbreaking work at Caracol, Belize [1], the application of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has been making revolutionary effects in archaeological investigations in the Maya lowlands [2][3][4][5][6], the Mexican Pacific Coast [7,8], and other tropical regions [9,10]. With its ability to penetrate the canopy, LiDAR allows archaeologists to rapidly map archaeological features Prior to the CPAP, Harvard University carried out archaeological investigations at Ceibal from 1964 to 1968.…”