Slashdot Mirror
Lasers Unearth Lost 'Agropolis' of New England
sciencehabit writes "Hidden ruins are customary in the wild jungles of South America or on the white shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, researchers have uncovered a long-lost culture closer to Western civilization — in New England. Using aerial surveys created by LiDAR, a laser-guided mapping technique, the team detected the barely perceptible remnants of a former 'agropolis' around three rural New England towns (abstract). Near Ashford, Connecticut, a vast network of roads offset by stone walls came to light underneath a canopy of oak and spruce trees. More than half of the town has become reforested since 1870, according to historical documents, exemplifying the extent of the rural flight that marked the late 1800s. Some structures were less than 2 feet high and buried in inaccessible portions of the forest, making them essentially invisible to on-the-ground cartography."
This makes it sound like a long-lost native civilization was discovered. Not the case. Early European settlers in New England devastated the native landscape and, basically, turned it into English sheep farms. As expansion pushed westward and agriculture shifted with it, that economy changed and native (and some invasive) species have reclaimed the landscape.
Still very cool and interesting, but a different story from what you might expect from reading the lede.
In a century or two, someone will look back at the U.S. and unearth the evidence that it once had vast manufacturing capability.
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentle slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs.
The use of LIDAR and other sensing techniques is having a powerful impact on archaeology around the world. New finds keep turning up, and there is still a lot of the earth to explore with those sensing technologies. Couple that with the ongoing efforts to digitize old records and the growing use of geospatial information systems and there are some interesting times ahead.
Great article: The technology uncovering humanity's past, and perhaps its future
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
How is New England closer to Western civilization than the 'white shores of the Mediterranean Sea'? Western civilization was born in the shores of the mediterranean sea.
My other signature is a car
Now, researchers have uncovered a long-lost culture closer to Western civilization — in New England.
"Long lost civilization" here means 1700s New England farms, it's not a discovery that Native Americans were building saw mills or anything.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
"Long lost civilization" and "New England" have a whole different meaning once you've read Lovecraft :)
This story isn't hardly surprising. After I got past the fact that the outline made it read like they found some long long civilization, and in fact it was just forgotten farm roads from 200 years ago, it's really not that impressive. I also live in Connecticut, less than 45 minutes from this location.. and this is true for most of Connecticut, at least the parts that still have woods left mainly in the Eastern part of the state as well as North West part of the state (where I am). The exact same trails can be found in my own back yard. My backyard consists of a area close to 250 acres or so of wooded area. The entire wooded area is no more than ~150 years old. You can tell by looking at the trees, they're all to young to have been there for more than 100 years. There's all sorts of areas littered with old barbed wire, to which trees have grown around, and old stone walls that have almost fallen apart and are more like a clumping of rocks all lined up than a stone wall. There are also area's where you can clearly tell there used to be trails, in fact we use one to walk between relatives on the other side of our hill and my own house, and a few of the more aged trails as ATV trails. In fact there was even a man made stream, that was diverted from its natural course (to which is has now gone back to) that once flowed a few dozen feet from my house, to which my driveway now follows. Such is not uncommon for all of Connecticut and New England. If you look, you'll find former farm trails and relics everywhere.
And as a boy, I'd constantly stumbled on structures like this. What this study does show is how extensive it was and how it connected - I never appreciated that because all I ever saw was a lone stone wall or something in the middle of the woods and didn't know it was part of this huge network.
Early European settlers in New England devastated the native landscape
Eek!
and, basically, turned it into English sheep farms.
Oh, you mean they wanted homes and livelihoods just like us. That doesn't sound quite so sinister.
Southern New England is overrun with old stone walls and relics of old farms, take a walk in the woods some time. Also, water is wet.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Property owners can use these maps to determine whether any such structures exist on their property. They will then bulldoze them flat so as to prevent some preservationist societies from declaring their property off limits to development.
Have gnu, will travel.
Attention Rest Of World, we in the US consider stuff from the 1800s not only old, but akin to ancient ruins.
Vizitez u our museums with art from the Olde Masters like Norman Rockwell and Robert Crumb.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"To an American a hundred years is a long time, and to a Briton a hundred miles is a long distance."
-- attribution unknown
farms ... that were abandoned by their owners after lucrative mill towns sprung up across New England
Actually the main reason that so many New England farms were abandoned is that farmers were moving to the Midwest, where the farmland was much better. I love New England, but the poor rocky soil makes it a lousy place to farm.
You're nearly 2 centuries behind, dude. Joseph Smith discovered ancient golden plates back in 1823, in nearby new york state.
... and to a German, a hundred miles per hour is a traffic jam.
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
I'm in the UK and live in a 400+ year old house so anything post 1800 feels pretty new fangled to me.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil