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Lidar Finds Overgrown Maya Pyramids

Posted by kdawson on from the run-but-you-can't-hide dept.

AlejoHausner writes "A team of archaeologists scanned the jungle of Belize with lidar. Although most of the reflections came from the jungle canopy, some light reflected off the ground surface. Using this, suddenly hidden pyramids, agricultural terraces, and ancient roads are revealed, at 6-inch resolution. The data allowed the archaeologists to bolster their theory that the ancient city of Caracol covered more than 70 square miles of urban sprawl and supported a population of over 115,000."

13 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Cool. by 2names · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now find Atlantis.

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
    1. Re:Cool. by WED+Fan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Screw Atlantis, I left a prototype G4 phone lying around, can it help me find that?

      --
      Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
    2. Re:Cool. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Minoan people of ancient Crete were well on the way to an industrial revolution of of their own that predated that of England by a couple of thousand years. If it wasn't for an inopportune volcanic eruption which completely wiped the Minoans out back around 1400 BCE,

      A volcano... or the horrific results of their experimentation with bio-engineering and the creation of a man-bull hybrid?!

      Food for thought.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:Cool. by Whatshisface · · Score: 2, Funny

      And we would have been only 20 years away from cold fusion and unlimited free power.

    4. Re:Cool. by natehoy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ah, so THEY are the originators of ManBearPig!

      Those crazy Minoans, they got exactly what they deserved.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  2. Re:Other uses for this technology by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or somebody that found your post funny.

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    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  3. Lidar by LearnToSpell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pretty much my favourite detection system.

    --
    Haida Manga
  4. Re:Other uses for this technology by Aeros · · Score: 2, Funny

    I dont think the technology is that advanced

  5. Re:They aren't overgrown by Tukz · · Score: 2, Funny

    These pyramids aren't overgrown, they're just big stoned, you insensitive clods.

    There, fixed it.

    --
    - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
  6. Re:Forensic Anthropology by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    Assuming those lost people dug their own shallow grave...

    I suspect the poster was thinking living people.

    Dead people are easy to find, hell I go a whole park full of em not to far from my house.

    You'd be surprised how people hate it when I play Frisbee there.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. Re:2012? by schon · · Score: 2, Funny

    My theory is that 2012 is when all the Mayan computers will crash.

    You just know that ~5000 years ago, some Mayan committee somewhere was designing this, and someone said "hey, what happens after year 5335?" and the answer was "who cares? by the time that rolls around, we'll be using something completely different."

    It's just like Y2K, except there is nobody around now to fix their code.

  8. Re:Other uses for this technology by jd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why do you think it took so long to decode? The code had no idea what to do.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  9. Re:Other uses for this technology by BobMcD · · Score: 3, Funny

    I built an irony detector, but it only detects 'everything but irony'.