ARCHAEOLOGISTS (考古学家) GUIDED BY laser images of a remote region of northern Guatemala have discovered 20-foot-high walls, watchtowers, and other evidence that ancient Maya societies had been annoyed by warfare threat over many years. The finds have upended long-established impressions of a civilization that it tamed the jungle and built thriving cities, then declined and disappeared quietly beneath the dense tropical forest.
Among the most surprising discoveries was a large stone complex now called La Cuemavilla. Built on a steep ridge, the heavily fortified site included high walls. Moats which serves as the largest defensive system ever discovered in the region.
This was surprising says an archaeologist, because we had a tendency to romanticize Maya warfare as something that was largely ritualized. But the fortifications were seeing suggest an elevated level of antagonism over centuries. Rulers were so deeply alarmed that they felt the need to invest in all these hilltop fortifications. There is an almost visible sense of fear in this landscape.
All these findings owe credit to PACUNAM LIDAR Initiative, a laser survey of some 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. Using revolutionary Laser technology, the survey revealed the long-hidden ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed.
Guided by the new Laser treasure maps, the LIDAR team deployed through the jungle over the past year to conduct hands-on investigations of more than a dozen of the most promising sites-most of which would have been imperceptible without LIDAR.
"You could walk over the top of a major ruin and miss it, "says an archaeologist who's part of the PACUNA project. But LIDAR picks up the patterns and makes the features pop out with surprising clarity.
Three-dimensional maps generated by the survey yielded surprises even at Tikal, the largest and most extensively explored archaeological site in Guatemala. The ancient city was at least four times bigger than previously thought, and surrounded by a massive ditch and fortified base stretching for miles.
Archaeologists stress that LIDAR, for all its utility, will never see below the ground or yield direct dates of occupation. "We still need to dig and hack our way through the jungle, but now we have a very accurate map to guide us."
