[HN Gopher] Pyramid structure discovered near Caral Peru
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       Pyramid structure discovered near Caral Peru
        
       Author : namanyayg
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2025-02-01 12:00 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (omniletters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (omniletters.com)
        
       | folli wrote:
       | Has anyone worked on AI/ML approaches for detecting ancient
       | structures in LiDAR data? Given that training data for
       | identifying remnants of man-made structures (e.g., Roman or
       | medieval ruins) is quite sparse, how would you approach this
       | problem?
       | 
       | Some initial thoughts:
       | 
       | - Data Augmentation: Using synthetic or simulated LiDAR data from
       | known structures to improve training. - Few-Shot Learning /
       | Transfer Learning: Training models on better-documented
       | archaeological sites and applying them to new areas.
       | 
       | Would love to hear thoughts from people with experience in remote
       | sensing, computer vision, or archaeology!
        
         | archaeoscape wrote:
         | We work on exactly that, in application to ancient Khmer
         | civilization (9th to 15th century). In fact, data is not that
         | sparse, but it's hard to get it. Archaeologists just don't
         | share data as much.
         | 
         | The basic answer is that you have to have at least some data to
         | be able to do anything. We found that in the data regime
         | augmentation works a little bit, transfer learning much less
         | so. What really works is simply sitting down and annotating the
         | data, with on-the-ground surveys and follows ups.
        
       | timmg wrote:
       | Have there been any recent books that try to reconstruct what
       | pre-Columbian South America was like?
       | 
       | I know that 1491 was a pretty good book about this. But it's like
       | 20 years old now. And Lidar seems to have really opened up new
       | insights in the past decade or so.
        
         | bboygravity wrote:
         | If you mean visually, there's this:
         | https://tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl/
        
         | thrownblown wrote:
         | Not South America, but the story of Moncacht-Ape
         | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncacht-Ap%C3%A9) is a
         | fascinating--if slightly dubious--primary source describing his
         | journey across North America immediately prior to European
         | contact. I found a copy of his account as told to a French
         | colonial officer on Amazon, and it looked like it was printed
         | on a laser printer.
         | 
         | Cabeza de Vaca spent 1528-1536 wandering through the Southwest,
         | living with multiple indigenous tribes. His experiences ranged
         | from enslavement to becoming a medicine man. His firsthand
         | account, Naufragios, is available, but I highly recommend A
         | Land So Strange by Andres Resendez for a more accessible read.
         | De Vaca also had a second adventure in South America, but it's
         | not as well-documented.
         | 
         | Another great read is River of Darkness by Buddy Levy, which
         | covers Francisco Orellana's journey down the Amazon. His
         | expedition was roughly contemporary to Cabeza de Vaca's own
         | jungle survival story--though Orellana was a bit more
         | conquistadorial than De Vaca.
         | 
         | I'd also love to see a proper follow-up to 1491 (1493 doesn't
         | count!). The closest thing we have might be America Before by
         | Graham Hancock, which incorporates recent LiDAR discoveries--
         | but it leans more into speculation than hard archaeology.
        
         | sampo wrote:
         | There is "America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost
         | Civilization", from 2019 by Graham Hancock. But while Graham
         | Hancock refers to lots of real research, he also mixes in his
         | own unverified ideas and theories. In that sense, Charles C.
         | Mann is a more serious reporter than Hancock.
        
       | zubiaur wrote:
       | There is so much to discover in that region. On a geology class
       | field trip, a few hours south of Lima, our instructor stopped and
       | pointed out a mound that would not have caught my eye at all.
       | Then he explained how it makes no sense for a geological feature
       | like that to be there.
       | 
       | It was a covered structure. A Huaca. Lima has quite a few in the
       | middle of the city. A stark reminder that we've been there
       | ,intermittently, for millennia.
        
       | stevage wrote:
       | Huh, I had not heard of Caral. This culture is apparently much
       | older than the Incas. Like, 2000 BC rather than 1500 AD.
        
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