Huge 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization discovered in northern Guatemala

[Abramelin]

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S., working with a colleague from France and another from Guatemala, has discovered a very large 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern Guatemala. In their paper published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, the group describes using LiDAR to conduct a survey of the area.

LiDAR is a detection system similar to radar but is based on laser light rather than radio waves. In recent years, it has been used to scan parts of dense tropical rain forests for signs of ancient civilizations. Lasers used in such systems are able to penetrate vegetative canopies over rain forests, revealing what is on the ground beneath them.

In this new effort, the researchers flew over parts of Guatemala as part of a mapping effort, when they came across what they describe as a vast ancient Maya civilization. In studying their maps, they were able to see that the ancient civilization was made up of more than 1,000 settlements covering approximately 650 square miles, most of which were linked by multiple causeways. The researchers were also able to see that the people who once lived in the settlements had been densely packed—a finding that goes against theories suggesting early Mesoamerican settlements tended to be sparsely populated.

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-huge-year-old-mayan-civilization-northern.html

[lightly]

Thanks Abramelin…and LiDAR!    What an awesome technology ..   I await many more discoveries 

[Abramelin]

42 minutes ago, lightly said:

Thanks Abramelin…and LiDAR!    What an awesome technology ..   I await many more discoveries 

That's also why I love Albert Lin's "Lost Cities" series on National Geographic. You know, the guy with the LiDAR drone.

[Abramelin]

 

54 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

That's also why I love Albert Lin's "Lost Cities" series on National Geographic. You know, the guy with the LiDAR drone.

I have even tried to contact him during my search for the Doggerland thread.

But LiDAR isn't a great help when looking for structures on the bottom of a sea:

https://geozoneblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/bathy-lidar-harder-than-it-looks/

 

[lightly]

1 hour ago, Abramelin said:

That's also why I love Albert Lin's "Lost Cities" series on National Geographic. You know, the guy with the LiDAR drone.

Oya, me too.      There’s no guessing what might be found with LiDAR !    Something completely unexpected ,and incredibly old,I hope!     It will cause many ‘records’ to be revised..and updated. ?

Edited December 25, 2022 by lightly

[+and-then]

9 hours ago, lightly said:

and LiDAR!    What an awesome technology

Yes, it really IS!  I've heard of it in some of the fiction/adventure books I've read.  I want to try to understand a little better how it actually functions.  It works miracles  

[lightly]

 

How does LiDAR see through trees?

Lidar, of course, does not actually see through vegetation. Rather, it sees through holes in the foliage. Some of the multiple laser pulses it emits simply find openings between leaves and branches, in much the same way that sunlight filters through the forest canopy, continuing down to the ground.Jul 6, 2021

Next-generation Lidar: Seeing the Forest Through the Trees

 

https://www.gislounge.com › next-generation-lidar-seeing...

 

https://www.synopsys.com/glossary/what-is-lidar.html

    (I’m not sure that’s exactly accurate… but, in the same way that light reaches the ground..even if slightly indirectly)???

   I remember reading somewhere once that at one time it was believed that the jungles of central and South America had never been humanly populated because the jungle was too dense!  and the soil too acidic to grow food.  Well, we obviously overcame both of those challenges.      

Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE) also known as Terra Preta ('black soil' in Portuguese) is highly fertile ancient man-made soil found in areas of the Amazon basin inhabited by humans.Jul 19, 2017

Amazonian Dark Earth - what is it and how do you make it

 

https

Edited December 26, 2022 by lightly

[+Hammerclaw]

More detailed information may be perused from this link.

LiDAR analyses in the contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: an introduction to new perspectives on regional early Maya socioeconomic and political organization | Ancient Mesoamerica | Cambridge Core

[+and-then]

12 hours ago, lightly said:

(I’m not sure that’s exactly accurate… but, in the same way that light reaches the ground..even if slightly indirectly)???

Just a wild guess on my part but this kind of imaging probably relies a lot on interpolation of a data set and just like with MRI, the image is "artificial" but darned accurate in its presentation of structures.

[Abramelin]

7 hours ago, and-then said:

Just a wild guess on my part but this kind of imaging probably relies a lot on interpolation of a data set and just like with MRI, the image is "artificial" but darned accurate in its presentation of structures.

I have mentioned Albert Lin and his "Lost Cities" series on National Geographic. What always amazed me was the accuracy of those artificial images he was able to create based on the data he received from his drone equipped with LiDAR. On the ground he was able to point to structures that were invisible to the naked eye.

[Abramelin]

This is what was found half a year ago in the Amazon, using this technique (and posted on UM) :

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/27/lidar-exposes-the-remnants-of-an-overgrown-ancient-civilization-in-the-amazon/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALtuvlZnuipR47w92wkoTkdHKLlchnnJg6ntihDuneefUlt_eDMuo1lzzdI6VNVohxvlVFRsXvaa0jQEZnT9hbbJAAXG-qFlpVnalmDtSFaCIcw50RPO99_VnAeM_7ZCRcNUmro0A_DjE-xhVZzItRXVimcqMvqxfnFyZtIQ67n7

[Hyperionxvii]

"1,000 settlements covering approximately 650 square miles, most of which were linked by multiple causeways."

Amazing. 

I wonder what the population of the Maya Civ was at it's peak? And what could have led to the demise of such a large civilization? 

 

[lightly]

4 hours ago, Hyperionxvii said:

"1,000 settlements covering approximately 650 square miles, most of which were linked by multiple causeways."

Amazing. 

I wonder what the population of the Maya Civ was at it's peak? And what could have led to the demise of such a large civilization? 

 

   I’ve always suspected that human populations in the Americas far exceeded what is known of…And, that Outsiders arrived far earlier than known. . carrying the diseases which nearly wiped out the peoples they encountered.     ???    ?    The intruders may have then died out themselves..or been killed off eventually?   Just a thought.

[Hyperionxvii]

35 minutes ago, lightly said:

   I’ve always suspected that human populations in the Americas far exceeded what is known of.

With all of the discoveries of these previously unknown settlements and the size of them, I would think that has to be a possibility.