[HN Gopher] Archaeologists Discover Lost Civilization in Guatemala
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Archaeologists Discover Lost Civilization in Guatemala
Author : 8bitsrule
Score : 70 points
Date : 2022-12-24 08:38 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
| Herodotus38 wrote:
| Obligatory direct link to the paper:
|
| https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/...
| blakesterz wrote:
| There are some really cool images there.
| gordondavidf wrote:
| +1 to this. Strongly recommend a glance of the paper for the
| images.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| If this interests you, read Charles Mann's book 1491.
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39020.1491
| ownlife wrote:
| Cool TED Talk on LiDAR - "Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR"
|
| https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_fisher_let_s_scan_the_whole_...
|
| YouTube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6rIUxHZ9f4
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| I really don't like the title of this submission. It is
| unnecessarily sensationalist. And why link to Vice.com when there
| is an open paper you can link to instead [1]?
|
| Here is the abstract of that paper:
|
| LiDAR coverage of a large contiguous area within the Mirador-
| Calakmul Karst Basin (MCKB) of northern Guatemala has identified
| a concentration of Preclassic Maya sites (ca. 1000 b.c.-a.d. 150)
| connected by causeways, forming a web of implied social,
| political, and economic interactions. This article is an
| introduction to one of the largest, contiguous, regional LiDAR
| studies published to date in the Maya Lowlands. More than 775
| ancient Maya settlements are identified within the MCKB, and 189
| more in the surrounding karstic ridge, which we condensed into
| 417 ancient cities, towns, and villages of at least six
| preliminary tiers based on surface area, volumetrics, and
| architectural configurations. Many tiered sites date to the
| Middle and Late Preclassic periods, as determined by
| archaeological testing, and volumetrics of contemporaneously
| constructed and/or occupied architecture with similar
| morphological characteristics. Monumental architecture,
| consistent architectural formats, specific site boundaries, water
| management/collection facilities, and 177 km of elevated
| Preclassic causeways suggest labor investments that defy
| organizational capabilities of lesser polities and potentially
| portray the strategies of governance in the Preclassic period.
| Settlement distributions, architectural continuities,
| chronological contemporaneity, and volumetric considerations of
| sites provide evidence for early centralized administrative and
| socio-economic strategies within a defined geographical region.
|
| [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-
| mesoamerica/...
| Gabriel_Martin wrote:
| I find LiDAR scanning through canopies super fascinating, but I
| ended up going down a different rabbit hole while reading this. I
| found the petition linked below after a cursory look into the
| doctor of archeology mentioned within this article. I wonder how
| this work fits into the aspirations mentioned within it.
|
| To me that petition brought up thoughts about how one might
| manage projects like this with respect to local population, and
| if/how efforts like this can aspire to maximize positive impacts
| for local populations, relating to economic mobility. It also
| brought up concerns about the worst parts of colonialism/neo-
| colonialism, namely the looting and suppression of local
| populations for the economic interests of foreign or state
| related interests. I wonder how the archeologist in question
| changed his methodologies (if at all) in response to the
| petition.
|
| https://www.change.org/p/society-for-american-archaeology-re...
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| I wish Hansen would go into a quiet retirement somewhere. He's
| notorious in the American archaeological community and frankly
| something of a political bogeyman for many of the political
| groups in Central America. He's been accused of everything from
| being involved with human/drug trafficking groups, to rigging
| elections, to pursuing shadowy mormon illuminati goals. He
| hasn't done any favors to his reputation by associating with
| unsavory individuals like Mel Gibson for funding and helping to
| produce whatever the hell _Apocalypto_ was. The Mirador basin
| his project is named after is widely considered to be
| nonexistent and not an isolated geographic region in its own
| right.
|
| I don't personally believe much of the stuff that's been said
| about him (having never met the guy) because it's so
| cartoonishly evil, but he's so politically radioactive that
| anything he might try to do to benefit local communities is
| _never_ going to get their support.
| groffee wrote:
| Lost to who? Ask the locals and they'll know all about it.
| kshahkshah wrote:
| Exactly, my buddy who used to regularly visit Guatemala has
| paid drivers to bring him out to still-covered ruins and
| explore for the day. The locals know about this stuff.
| college_physics wrote:
| Yes but they dont have a fancy lidar so why bother.
|
| Reminds me of this story (here simplified and from memory :-)
| about ancient Maya script that was deciphered once the
| brilliant code breakers had the inspiration to talk to the
| locals (who were still talking the script)
| ks2048 wrote:
| There's long been a serious problem with looting at Maya sites. I
| wonder how that affects what they publish with these surveys.
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