Vegetation is believably the populace ’s best occult custodian . It ’s kept some of the world ’s most famous archeological situation hidden from our eyes for centuries . Even now , some of the most amazing sites that have been the focus of much archeological care , such as Guatemala’sTikaland Mexico ’s Cobá , are still90%covered in thick jungle . Who knows what other treasures we might notice in the come years ? Well , thanks to lasers , we might startle recover out a trivial preferably than we ’d hoped .
More and more archeologists across the globe are beginning to switch in their trowel for more advanced perception technologies , and the discoveries so far have been unbelievable . AirborneLiDAR(light detection and ranging ) , for example , is a powerful mapping applied science that was first conceived in the ‘ 60s as a method acting for detecting submarine sandwich . It involves give the axe optical maser heartbeat over surface area of interest in order tomeasurethe aloofness between the soil and the aircraft . Some years after its introduction , researchers realized its potential as a tool for peeping through dull vegetation , and since then it ’s beenrevolutionizingremote sense in tropic environments .
While fly lasers around may sound expensive , deliberate it can uncover and represent extensive regions without the need for time - consuming , labor - intensive background survey , it ’s actually become acost in force toolthat ’s turn out priceless to the field .
Just last class , a squad of archeologists , direct by University of Sydney researchers , announced that they had used LiDAR to map370 square kilometersaround the earth ’s biggest religious composite — Cambodia ’s Angkor Wat — in less than two weeks . Not only did this unveil a serial of unexpected find about the once mislay urban center of Angkor , but it also revealed an even older city that archeologists had a underhand mistrust lay hidden nearby .
This long - lost city , calledMahendraparvata , lay atop the Phnom Kulen mountain in the Siem Reap Province . This city was the original capital of the mighty Khemer Empire which was constitute by a king called Jayavarman II . Mapping reveal almost 30 previously unknown synagogue alongside evidence of an extensive urban structure admit canals , a grid ofceremonial avenue , man - made pond and road . Some of these temple were so well hidden that the team believes they may never have beenlootedin the past times .
LiDAR was also used back in2009to help make a 3D map of an ancient Maya city in western Belize calledCaracol . This metropolis was once again shielded by thick-skulled botany , and inless than one weekthe team collect more information about it than they had in a quartern of a C hack through the tangled jungle . They found a plethora ofagricultural terraces , roads and structures that were all previously unknown .
It seems that these impressive perception technology are bringing us into a golden age of archeology , and many of the discovery made over the last duo of days have alreadychallengedour conventional hypothesis about ancient societies . Hopefully , now that this technology is beginning to be used more and more , archeologists will uphold this current course of discovery , work us closer to ancient civilization than we could have ever imagined .
