Just finished reading about the new lidar survey at Angkor Wat versus the old ground mapping

The lidar work found over 1,000 new structures in the jungle, stuff the ground teams missed for years. It makes me wonder if we're putting too much time into traditional digs when tech can map a whole area so fast. Has anyone else seen a case where a new method completely changed what we knew about a site?

3 comments

3 Comments

jasonallen24d ago

That lidar find is wild, makes you think about all the other places still hidden under trees or dirt. Ground work is still key for the details, but it's like having a map before you start digging. Saw something similar with ground-penetrating radar at a Roman fort site, showed a whole extra wall line nobody knew was there. Tech just gives the big picture first, so you know where to even point your shovel.

phoenixw1124d ago

Totally get what jasonallen means about having a map first. It's like when you lose your keys and you just tear the couch apart, but if you had a tracker on them you'd go right to the spot. We do that everywhere, just guessing and poking around because we don't have the right tool to see the whole shape of the problem. These tech maps are that tool for history, showing us exactly where to look so we stop wasting time on empty spots.

the_thea24d ago

Yeah, like jasonallen said about having a map first. I mean, it's kinda like when they used sonar to find that old shipwreck in the great lakes and it was way bigger than anyone guessed from the records.