A digital 3D image provided by the Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation in Guatemala shows a depiction of the Mayan archaeological site at Tikal created using Lidar aerial mapping technology. "That is two to three times more (inhabitants) than people were saying there were," said Marcello Canuto, a professor of Anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans. Results from the research suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilisation more akin to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China. The images from Guatemala revealed that the Mayans altered the landscape in a much broader way than previously thought; in some areas, 95% of available land was cultivated. Lidar revealed a previously undetected structure between the two sites that Garrison says "can't be called anything other than a Maya fortress."

Source: Bangkok Post February 03, 2018 08:48 UTC