Archaeologists find previously undiscovered Mayan city by looking at old lidar data

KJZZ | By Mark Brodie
Published March 5, 2025 at 12:36 PM MST

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Luke Auld-Thomas et al./Antiquity 2024

This lidar image reveals a major Maya urban area in Mexico that was previously unknown to the scientific community.


Researchers have found a treasure trove of structures from an ancient civilization — by using a modern technology.

Luke Auld-Thomas, an instructor in the Anthropology Department at Northern Arizona University and a PhD candidate at Tulane University, along with some colleagues at schools in both the U.S. and Mexico, he analyzed a survey of land in Mexico done by lidar, or light detection and ranging. They found evidence of more than 6,500 structures from the Maya civilization.

Auld-Thomas joined The Show to talk about the find and what it could mean for the future, starting with how common it is to be able to use lidar to do this kind of work in the worlds of archaeology and anthropology.

Full conversation

LUKE AULD-THOMAS: It’s actually becoming quite common. Archaeology depends on being able to see what's on the ground, or ideally, being able to see what’s under the ground, which is often what we’re most interested in. But that starts out with being able to see what’s on top of the ground.

And the shape of the ground, if you imagine, you know, a group of houses that have been abandoned for 1,000 years, all of the perishable bits rot, all of the non-perishable bits fall apart, and you end up with basically a lump of rocks and other non-perishable material that gradually gets covered by soil.

More:
https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-03-05/archaeologists-find-previously-undiscovered-mayan-city-by-looking-at-old-lidar-data