WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Is New Laser Technology Discovering Ancient Ruins?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>Rain Stuff. Lauren Vogel Bam here with another classic episode.

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<v Speaker 1>Archaeology is the study of ancient things, but new technology

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<v Speaker 1>is making it safer and cooler for both researchers and

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<v Speaker 1>the sites they seek. In this episode, we talk about

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<v Speaker 1>how light detection and ranging technology or LDAR is changing

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<v Speaker 1>the game. Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works,

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bam here. By using a

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<v Speaker 1>technology called lidar to peer through the dense tree canopy

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<v Speaker 1>of the Guatemalan jungle from above, researchers haven't covered a

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<v Speaker 1>massive network of ancient Mayan ruins which have been hidden

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<v Speaker 1>for centuries. The discovery, first reported by National Geographic promises

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<v Speaker 1>to alter our understanding of the Maya civilization by revealing

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<v Speaker 1>that it was far bigger in scale and more advanced

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<v Speaker 1>and complex than previously believed. Researcher located the ruins of

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<v Speaker 1>more than sixty thousand houses, palaces, highways, and other man

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<v Speaker 1>made features. A press release by the University of Houston,

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<v Speaker 1>home of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping or ENCOM,

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<v Speaker 1>describes the find as sprawling over an area of eight

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and eleven square miles that's about square kilometers. To

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<v Speaker 1>appreciate the size of this Maya megalopolis, consider this, it

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<v Speaker 1>was one point seven times bigger than the modern day

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<v Speaker 1>city of Los Angeles, according to National Geographic The discovery

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<v Speaker 1>suggests that the Maya civilization, which peaked one thousand, two

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<v Speaker 1>hundred years ago, was highly sophisticated. CNN reported that the

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<v Speaker 1>findings include a pyramid ninety feet that's twenty seven meters tall,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as evidence of agriculture, quarries and fortifications, plus

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<v Speaker 1>an extensive road system that connected settlements. According to CNN,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers believe that ten million people lived in the region,

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<v Speaker 1>many times more than previous estimates. We spoke via email

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<v Speaker 1>with Thomas Garrison, a Maya archaeologist and assistant professor at

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<v Speaker 1>Ithaca College who were with other researchers on the project.

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<v Speaker 1>He said these findings are important because the data lay

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<v Speaker 1>bare an entire civilization that has not been disrupted by

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<v Speaker 1>modern development. The work was done in conjunction with a

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<v Speaker 1>Guatemalan nonprofit that focuses upon aiding scientific and archaeological research

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<v Speaker 1>and efforts to preserve local cultural heritage. Garrison explains, we

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<v Speaker 1>don't just see the big sites. Instead, we're seeing all

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<v Speaker 1>of the infrastructure that made the Maya civilization function, how

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<v Speaker 1>they fed themselves, how they traveled, and how they defended themselves.

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<v Speaker 1>From the density of the settlement, he said, we now

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<v Speaker 1>know that the ancient Maya were able to sustain a

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<v Speaker 1>population in this region that was substantially greater than what

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<v Speaker 1>exists in the present, and they did so for over

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<v Speaker 1>a thousand years. Diane Davies, a British archaeologist and educator

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<v Speaker 1>who specializes in the Maya, says the discovery of the

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<v Speaker 1>extensive ruins could help challenge widely held assumptions about the

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<v Speaker 1>Maya culture, such as the belief that challenges of living

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<v Speaker 1>in the rainforest environment would have limited the population size.

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<v Speaker 1>She said via email. The Maya lived in this area

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<v Speaker 1>for over one thousand, five hundred years in the millions.

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<v Speaker 1>To live this long and at such high numbers suggests

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<v Speaker 1>that they were not only highly efficient in their agricultural systems,

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<v Speaker 1>but also environmentally aware. That is, they knew the limitations

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<v Speaker 1>of the environment and sought to protect it. The new

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<v Speaker 1>findings add to existing evidence of the Maya civilizations advanced

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<v Speaker 1>state such as their writing system, mathematics, and complex calendars.

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<v Speaker 1>The Maya, Davies said, had some of the largest temple

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<v Speaker 1>pyramids in the world, all built without metal tools, the wheel,

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<v Speaker 1>or pack animals. These are just a few of their

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<v Speaker 1>achievements and why people need to reevaluate the Maya. The

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<v Speaker 1>discovery also is another example of how light ARE, which

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<v Speaker 1>stands for light detection and ranging, is rapidly revolutionizing archaeology.

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<v Speaker 1>Instead of hacking through the jungle in search of ruins,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers can fly over it in an aircraft equipped with

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<v Speaker 1>a laser and other equipment. By firing hundreds of thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of laser pulses each second, they can collect data and

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<v Speaker 1>create a three dimensional map of the ground surface and

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<v Speaker 1>its features. LDAR was first developed by NASA in the

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<v Speaker 1>early nineteen seventies as a tool for space exploration. The

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy one Apollo fifteen mission used an early LDAR

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<v Speaker 1>instrument to map the Moon's surface topography from orbit, and

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<v Speaker 1>scientists would also use it to study Mars and detail

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<v Speaker 1>the shape of an asteroid. But archaeologists figured out how

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<v Speaker 1>to adapt the technology to find ancient ruins in remote places.

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<v Speaker 1>In the early twenty teens, researchers utilized lidar to locate

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<v Speaker 1>Lasieu da Blanca, the white city in Honduras whose existence

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<v Speaker 1>had been the subject of rumor in legend since the

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<v Speaker 1>days of her Non Cortes. More recently, others used lidar

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<v Speaker 1>to scan the Cambodian jungle and uncover a fourteen hundred

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<v Speaker 1>year old city that would have rivaled nom Fen in

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<v Speaker 1>size and calm. Director Ramesh L. Shresta says that lidar

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<v Speaker 1>technology has become vastly more powerful since he began to

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<v Speaker 1>use it in the late nineteen nineties. In that time,

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<v Speaker 1>devices have gone from shooting three thousand pulses per second

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<v Speaker 1>to nine hundred thousand today. That was in much higher

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<v Speaker 1>resolution maps and has reduced the amount of time required

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<v Speaker 1>to cover an area such as the Maya site, essentially

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<v Speaker 1>making a project of this scale possible, according to shress Though,

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<v Speaker 1>though the Maya megalopolis may be dwarfed by even bigger

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<v Speaker 1>future ledar projects, he said researchers eventually want to map

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<v Speaker 1>areas that are nearly fifty eight hundred square miles that's

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<v Speaker 1>nearly fifteen kilometers in Guatemala and Mexico. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article scientists use lidar to discover massive

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<v Speaker 1>lost Mayan city on how stuff works dot Com, written

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<v Speaker 1>by Patrick J. Kaiger. Brain Stuff is productive i Heart

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<v Speaker 1>Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my

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<v Speaker 1>heart Radio is at the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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