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KindAwareness3073 t1_j3fdto5 wrote

Lidar is the real hero of this story. The technology has revolutionized Mezo-American studies.

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I-Make-Maps91 t1_j3kbmmm wrote

It's easy to underestimate just how ground breaking it is to have high resolution aerial imagery for the entire world. And not only one set, but a constantly updating set across multiple bandwidths that can be customized to your exact needs. There's discoveries that we'll find years from now and we'll go back into the old archives and find it, but who was ever going to randomly stumble into that specific section of endless rainforest?

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KindAwareness3073 t1_j3kccqi wrote

Having been in that rain forest I have literslly stood on top of some recent discoveries and never saw them. I can't wait to see what we learn in the coming years, not just about monumental structures, but more importantly about the agriculture, water management, and lives of the people.

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timesarewasting t1_j42ehcl wrote

Finally the native Americans would be vindicated. Some Spanish and other invaders not only destroyed their ancient and complex culture but also stamped them with various prejudices.

PS: Western historians of those times were known for "colourful" depictions of other cultures. They made very tall claims about China India Arab etc as well

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KindAwareness3073 t1_j42fpxl wrote

The Maya civilization under discussion had collapsed hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived. That said their religioysly drriven cultural destruction is unforgivable. Bishop Diego Landa deserves to be spoken of in the same breath with history's other monsters.

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timesarewasting t1_j42e606 wrote

I'm guessing great use of AI as well in decoding these data

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I-Make-Maps91 t1_j42eyg7 wrote

Yeah, pattern recognition AI is going to be a game changer when they can feed all the raw data into it.

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