Archaeology from the Air

By William E. Carter, Ramesh Shrestha, Juan C. Fernandez-Diaz

In aircraft flying “low and slow,” instruments sending out hundreds of thousands of laser pulses per second can gather enough data to reveal archaeological sites hidden under dense forest canopies.

Physics Technology Archaeology Cartography Geography

This Article From Issue

January-February 2016

Volume 104, Number 1

Page 28

DOI: 10.1511/2016.118.28

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Driven by dreams of fame and wealth beyond imagination, the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century were willing to face great hardships and to risk their lives in a search for the “cities of gold” common to the mythology of the aboriginal peoples of Central and South America.

The data gathered from airborne light detection and ranging, or LiDAR, can be manipulated to produce various views of an area, as shown here for the archaeological site of Caracol, in Belize. The upper image is a false-color rendering of the first laser returns, which come mostly from the upper surfaces of the forest that covers the site. The lower image, in which the vegetation has been virtually stripped away, reveals many buildings and even the details of agricultural terraces—some less than 30 centimeters high.

Images courtesy of NCALM.

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