I'm starting to tread on The Silicon Graybeard's turf, but this is really cool:
Satellites are helping scientists spot more ancient Mayan ruins than ever before, which is no small feat considering how thick the forest is in the indigenous group's ancestral lands.
"Archeologists have mapped more Mayan sites, buildings and features in the past 10 years than we had in the past — preceding — 150 years," Brett Houk, an archaeology professor at Texas Tech University, told attendees at a NASA-led space archaeology conference Sept. 18 to which Space.com received an exclusive invite.
Archaeologists are finding these ruins faster due to better satellite technology. Using a pulsed laser technique called lidar, or light detection and ranging, satellites can peer through the dense canopy surrounding typical Mayan sites, Houk explained at the two-day livestreamed NASA and Archaeology From Space symposium.
I found the arguments in Charles Mann's 1491 to be pretty convincing that American populations were much larger than previously thought prior to Columbus' voyage. This seems to be evidence in favor of that thesis.
Other places this technique should be easily applicable are the Amazon basin (which Mann claims hosted a very large population) and likely Cambodia/Angkor Wat.
I'd heard of LIDAR being used from aircraft, but this is the first I've heard of if being used from satellites.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Sahara...
ReplyDeleteGround penetrating radar was used by the US to map the Nile delta and find hidden ruins and underground aquafers. Of course, this was a way of telling the USSR that we knew where their hidden missile silos were without actually telling the USSR that we knew where their stuff was.
ReplyDeleteBetween LIDAR and Ground Penetrating Radar, the Mayan civilization has been shown to be huge. All those roads and ruins covered by a huge rain forest. Which goes to show that the Mayans basically deforested their areas for farming.
In other words, the 'ancient and primeval' Amazon Rainforest is mostly 600 or so years old. Funny that.
Yeah, I am a "high counter" too. I think the low counters have Plains Indians on the brain. That is a harsh environment and they were mostly nomads so their populations were low but farmers have higher densities. The other thing often neglected is the ravages of Old World diseases before individual cultures had direct contact. I have read that de Soto may have been a murderer, rapist and slaver but the worst thing he did was bring pigs along on his explorations. The diseases spread to tribes he never saw. Of course, the Spanish didn't understand this any better than the Indians did. Same thing with English and Basque fishermen operating in the Northeast pre-Pilgrim. Apparently, the Vikings weren't a problem probably because no one could get closer than arrow range.
ReplyDeleteHave 1491 on my bookshelf. May be time to finally read it.
ReplyDeleteWhile studying for a degree in Geology, I came across a paper about using sat-borne ground penetrating radar (GPR) to identify a gold vein several meters below ground level. A field team went to the area and did confirm the find.
ReplyDeleteThat was in 1982 or '83. During that same time, I had seen same tech used to ident buried munitions and aircraft hangers in the Middle East.
Of course, the Apollo program used this for lunar missions.
I know I mention a technology different then that used in archeology. But it's not as different as you might think, nor is the application.
My point is these have been around for quite a while. I haven't even mentioned there are applications which would blow your mind, that you would straight away say that isn't possible.
Yes, it is very possible. It has been in use for decades. Think about the sensitivities of thermal and false color imagery.
Also, how do you think the deep ocean sea floor has been mapped? Do you really think it's only from imaging by sea going vessels? Thousands upon thousands of ocean crossings all by vessels with those systems installed and continually calibrated? That would be daft. Less probable than sats doing the work.
I think that there is a tendency for people to confuse laser distance measurement (lidar)with imaging radar. I think the only way for laser measurement to map anything below forest cover would be to turn up the power and leave a trail of ash.
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