GUATEMALA CITY—Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defence works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala’s Peten region, suggesting that millions more people lived there than previously thought. The discoveries, which included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, were announced Thursday by an alliance of U.S., European and Guatemalan archeologists working with Guatemala’s Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation. “That is two to three times more (inhabitants) than people were saying there were,” said Marcello A. Canuto, a professor of Anthropology at Tulane University. Researchers used a mapping technique called LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection And Ranging. Article Continued BelowThe images revealed that the Mayans altered the landscape in a much broader way than previously thought; in some areas, 95 per cent of available land was cultivated.

Source: thestar February 03, 2018 01:18 UTC