Archaeological application of airborne LiDAR to examine social changes in the Ceibal region of the Maya lowlands

PloS One
Takeshi InomataTsuyoshi Haraguchi

Abstract

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 ceremonial complex in the region during the transition to sedentism at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic period (c. 1000 BC). As a more sedentary way of life was accepted during the late part of the Middle Preclassic period and the initial Late Prec...Continue Reading

References

Jul 18, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Arlen F ChaseJohn F Weishampel
Jul 13, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Damian H EvansGlenn Boornazian
Apr 2, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Takeshi InomataHitoshi Yonenobu
Jan 25, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Takeshi InomataHiroo Nasu

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Citations

Oct 9, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Timothy BeachColin Doyle
Dec 15, 2020·Plant Phenomics : a Science Partner Journal·James D BurridgeJonathan P Lynch
Apr 29, 2021·PloS One·William M RingleDavid Ortegón Zapata

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
scraping

Software Mentioned

LiDAR
RRIM
Getis
ArcMap
Hot Spot Analysis
Incremental Spatial Autocorrelation
Ord
Tourtellot

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