Lidar: Guided Archaeological Surveys in the Hinterlands of Northwestern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the last decade airborne mapping lidar has become an extremely valuable tool for archaeologists studying ancient settlement patterns. It has proven especially useful in regions covered by dense forests on which prospection with other remote sensing techniques is not possible. This paper contributes to the growing international dialogue regarding the use of lidar for archaeological studies by providing examples of features that have been discovered in this region, how these features can be interpreted, and how these interpretations can contribute to theoretical anthropological perspectives regarding how humans divide and utilize the landscape. Our remote and field analysis has positively identified numerous archaeological sites that were not been previously recorded. The authors report on results from the last three seasons of the multidisciplinary Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (DH2GC). Among its main objectives, this project investigates the sociopolitical nature of the study area through architectural, material cultural remains, and geospatial analyses integrated into a regional lidar dataset. Using key markers to define areas of specialized activity within each excavation and occupational layers across the study area, we have begun reconstructing the dynamic history of the study area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33502