Archaeological application of airborne LiDAR to examine social changes in the Ceibal region of the Maya lowlands (original) (raw)

Although the application of LiDAR has made significant contributions to archaeology, LiDAR only provides a synchronic view of the current topography. An important challenge for researchers is to extract diachronic information over typically extensive LiDAR-surveyed areas in an efficient manner. By applying an architectural chronology obtained from intensive excavations at the site center and by complementing it with surface collection and test excavations in peripheral zones, we analyze LiDAR data over an area of 470 km2 to trace social changes through time in the Ceibal region, Guatemala, of the Maya lowlands. We refine estimates of structure counts and populations by applying commission and omission error rates calculated from the results of ground-truthing. Although the results of our study need to be tested and refined with additional research in the future, they provide an initial understanding of social processes over a wide area. Ceibal appears to have served as the only cere...