{"id":976,"date":"2010-05-12T18:24:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T17:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=976"},"modified":"2010-08-31T10:47:34","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T09:47:34","slug":"lidar-ranging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=976","title":{"rendered":"Lidar ranging"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing as seductive as new technology, particularly in the world of archaeology<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 Some years ago I co-led an expedition that expended an inordinate amount of energy using a thermal imaging camera.\u00a0 We flew over the cloud forest near Machu Picchu to determine the full extent of the nearby site of Llactapata, at a cost of $1000 per hour for the plane, let alone for the camera.\u00a0 Its infra-red vision was supposed to be able to detect the difference in temperature between stone buildings which retain heat, and vegetation which does not.\u00a0 By using it, we hoped to \u00a0be able to see through the cloud-forest to any ruins below the canopy\u00a0 – the archaeological equivalent of those X-Ray specs sold in schoolboys\u2019 comics to look through women\u2019s skirts, and in the event about as successful.<\/p>\n

We ended up going into the forest on foot and looking in the more traditional manner, with machetes, frustration and a great deal of sweat.\u00a0 (The full story is told in Cochineal Red<\/a> for those interested.)<\/p>\n

But an even newer technology has come along that sounds rather more effective:\u00a0 lidar (‘light detection and ranging’).\u00a0 Gamers have used it to create virtual reality sites for some time.\u00a0 \u00a0Now the husband-and-wife team of Arlen and Diane Chase have adapted \u00a0it at Caracol in Belize to penetrate the jungle cover and create 3-D images of one of the great cities of the Maya lowlands.<\/p>\n

In the process they\u2019ve established that the site was far more extensive than had ever been expected:\u00a0 the city sprawled over some 70 square miles.<\/p>\n

Diane Chase was quoted as being\u00a0 ‘blown away’ by the new technology:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0‘We believe that lidar will help transform Maya archaeology much in the same way that radiocarbon dating did in the 1950s and interpretations of Maya hieroglyphs did in the 1980s and \u201990s.’<\/p>\n

Apparently, however,\u00a0 they also emphasized that \u2018it would not obviate the need to follow up with traditional mapping to establish \u201cground truth.\u201d \u2019\u00a0 What a terrific phrase \u2013 \u2018ground truth\u2019.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s something I\u2019ve been searching for my whole life…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing as seductive as new technology, particularly in the world of archaeology.\u00a0\u00a0 Some years ago I co-led an expedition that expended an inordinate amount of energy using a thermal imaging camera.\u00a0 We flew over the cloud forest near Machu Picchu to determine the full extent of the nearby site of Llactapata, at a cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,3],"tags":[61,14,12,13,130],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peru","category-uncategorized","category-travel","tag-caracol","tag-inca","tag-lidar-ranging","tag-llactapata","tag-maya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1120,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}