Hidden in the Hills No Longer: LiDAR Coverage in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico.

Summary

LiDAR imagery is revolutionizing interpretations of ancient Maya demography, land use, and community organization, among other concerns. This paper provides preliminary observations on LiDAR coverage of 200 km2 of the Puuc region of northern Yucatan, Mexico, collected in 2017 by NCALM. The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project has been working in this area since 2000,and although we have intensively studied settlement at both the urban and intersite level, LiDAR provides the opportunity to assess spatial organization on a far broader canvas. Until now, no Puuc center of any size has been fully surveyed, but these data provide coverage of at least seven centers in their totality. With substantial samples of two broad ecological zones, the LiDAR dataset also provides the basis for testing ideas concerning land management. They demonstrate, for instance, the absence of terrain modifications such as terracing on any significant scale. The distribution of settlement revealed in the imagery also point out the limitations of traditional categories of site analysis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21509