The Importance of Large-Scale Collaborative Lidar Research in the Maya Lowlands of Northern Peten
Author(s): Francisco Estrada-Belli; Marcello Canuto; Thomas Garrison; Ramesh Shrestha; Marianne Hernandez
Year: 2019
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Since 2009, lidar technology has been revolutionizing lowland Maya archaeology. Lidar data are most effective, however, when collected broadly and studied collaboratively. Recently, the Pacunam Lidar Initiative adopted this approach, uniting seven different research projects to analyze over 2100 km2 of forest cover of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. The collective results helped upend long-held notions of urbanism, subsistence strategies, and regional interaction. PLI has since expanded its survey of this area by over 3000 km2. Based on preliminary collaborative analyses, we discuss how these data expand our understanding of lowland Maya settlement, agricultural intensification, and landscape modifications.
Cite this Record
The Importance of Large-Scale Collaborative Lidar Research in the Maya Lowlands of Northern Peten. Francisco Estrada-Belli, Marcello Canuto, Thomas Garrison, Ramesh Shrestha, Marianne Hernandez. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 449951)
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Keywords
General
demography
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LiDAR
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Maya: Classic
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Survey
Geographic Keywords
Mesoamerica: Maya lowlands
Spatial Coverage
min long: -94.197; min lat: 16.004 ; max long: -86.682; max lat: 21.984 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 26092