Two days in a row, the New York Times has run stories related to geospatial technologies, in particular LiDAR. The laser mapping technology must be hot or something. Two archaeologists who have worked in Belize for years mapping and excavating Maya ruins sites, stumbled upon a non-invasive technology to cut through forest and discover how the ancient civilization in Belize lived, built their cities, grew crops, and probably how they used water. Not only does the use of LiDAR save loads of time but it means ground doesn't have to be broken to get a picture of the past society. Be sure to check out the imagery of the mapping.
When I was in Belize for the Natural Resources Management class in March, we went to a Maya site, Xunantunich. After seeing the structural shape and the surrounding terrain (shown in the photo above and the video), and the fact that not all buildings were excavated, when traveling around Belize on the rest of the trip, these pyramid-shaped structures were clearly visible in many places. They were just not uncovered. With this remote sensing, they don't really need to be, it seems.
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