Laser Scans Reveal Maya 'Megalopolis' Below Guatemalan Jungle (nationalgeographic.com) 64
Laser-toting archaeologists have discovered an entire new city in the Central American jungle, the National Geographic reported this week. From the report: In what's being hailed as a "major breakthrough" in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala. Using a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (short for "Light Detection And Ranging"), scholars digitally removed the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape, revealing the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed. "The LiDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated," said Thomas Garrison, an Ithaca College archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer who specializes in using digital technology for archaeological research.
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...You do realize that China and India have three times the population of the US....
And use 1/3 the resources.
Want to save the world?
Guess who would have to go first?!!!
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Trees are not Grass. You can't cut it once a week, it's takes quite some time for a Tree to grow.
Re:Lost City of the Monkey God (Score:4, Informative)
Non-creimer link here [amazon.com].
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Revolutionary? (Score:1)
Re:Revolutionary? (Score:5, Funny)
Well the scanning mechanism revolves during operation. So, yes, technically, I guess?
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Is LiDAR really a revolutionary technology at this point?
No, but using it for the purposes of Archeology is pretty new. The first such uses I know of were only 6 years ago.
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Is LiDAR really a revolutionary technology at this point?
No, but using it for the purposes of Archeology is pretty new.
Together, they open up new academic and career opportunities for sharks.
Re:Revolutionary? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure the researchers know what they are dealing with and will go and do some verification, but I think maybe there's some media hype on just how certain the are. They haven't actually gone and uncovered any of these newly mapped structures as far as I can tell.
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In other words, they weren't using it for archaeology, which is what TED said started about 6 years ago.
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Accurate.
I was about to write a post about how the spaniards destroyed them, but wanted to make sure so I checked wikipedia.
You are correct, the mayans et al in the region were in nearly continuous war, they did tremendous environmental damage to the point their cities were unfit to live in/around. Leadership was ineffectual and eventually gave way to a ruling council.
Rather amazing to see that they didn't leave because of a major event like disease or foreign occupation. Their society was just really bui
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Re:A civilisation brought low by global warming (Score:5, Insightful)
Assuming you're serious... You seem to be confusing habitat overrun (a regional phenomenon) with global warming. AFAIK nobody knows for sure what brought down the Mayan civilization, but most people figure they grew too big too fast and cut down all the trees, etc.. That's not good behavior, certainly, but calling it "global warming" is way off base.
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AFAIK nobody knows for sure what brought down the Mayan civilization.
Epidemics and diseases [wikipedia.org] is the leading explanation. Almost the same thing happened to Europeans with plagues [wikipedia.org]. The same thing happened to Roman Empire [wikipedia.org] prior to complete collapse. So when conquistadores showed up, they were both immune and carriers.
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That's Aztec not Mayans. The Mayan civilization collapsed centuries before Columbus ever showed up.
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I'm sure AmiMoJo will find some way how to blame whitey.
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"man made localized climate change", aka "deforestation and erosion".
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In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive K'iche' kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
This has all happened before. (Score:2)
And it will all happen again.
Guatemala better give it back (Score:1)
It's Mayan. Get it?
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And that joke was Urine.
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That's embarrassing. (Score:2)
When the Earth realized our gaze was moving down dangerously close to the equator she yelled, "Hey! Keep your scanners up here, buddy!" ;)
Really exciting (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm flabbergasted that there are so many finger-wagging posts out of the gate chastising everything from anthropogenic global warming to Western Civilization to the propensity of an advanced society to destroy itself. I just simply feel excited for the archeologists--how thrilling it must be to make such a discovery and the excitement over planning next steps to learn more.
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Flabbergasted? Really? Have you visited Slashdot much in the past few years? The days of people commenting on Slashdot with actual interest and knowledge in scientific fields are long gone. Those people have left, because the trolls, political wanks [left and right], and racist ACs have made this their playground. There are still some decent articles posted, but don't expect anything from the "community."
It's a sad day, based on Egyptian experience (Score:2)
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The article states that these sites are already being looted, with LIDAR showing "thousands" of pits having been dug, and that while unknown to researchers, they are obviously not unknown to locals. They hope to raise awareness of the problem.
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Based on the InfoGraphics(tm) in TFA, it looks like this is in a pretty well known geographic zone near other ruins/archaeological sites. The larger structures and scope may be new to archaeologists, but it sounds like the general area's likely archaeological value wasn't unknown.
It's not like they found a giant city in an area otherwise considered lacking anything.
LiDAR (Score:2)
I see this being pronounced in "air quotes" a la doctor evil. LiDAR has been around for a very long time now, it is hardly revolutionary. In fact there was a similar story years ago, about the exact same thing, probably just a different place (or maybe the same story now in duplicate).
It is pretty cool. However at the same time my spidey sense is going off a bit on how "undiscovered" these places were. It seems much to vast and complex to have been unnoticed entirely. Locals perhaps have known about it fore
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" (or maybe the same story now in duplicate)."
You're here long enough to know it must be a dupe.
This belongs in a museum! (Score:4, Funny)
But watch out for the massive boulder.
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Zarahemla (Score:1)
This is obviously the city of Zarahemla. This is known.
Ooh, but will they find the Shakuras Plateau? (Score:1)