Laser mapping ancient Mayan temples

Loved the BoingBoing subject for this post: Pew pew! For science! Lasers map ancient Mayan temples… ;-)

Scientists using LIDAR mapped 802 miles of dense jungle-choked terrain around Caracol in Belize… in under four days flying over the area with planes and ground pointing laser radar. Not only that, the laser mapping turned up stuff ground-based surveying had been unable to spot: house mounds, roads and farms.

So freaking cool. NYTimes: Using lasers to map ancient civilization in a matter of days

Imagine this used in places like Angkor Way or other areas of SouthEast Asia as well.

(note to anyone who ever needs a techie archaeology geek to work on this stuff: I’ve always wanted to get down to do the Hummingbird Highway and see Caracol, Tikal and a whack of sites in Southern Mexico. So, um…ask if you need someone!).

via BoingBoing .