Airborne LiDAR, Archaeology, and the Ancient Maya Landscape at Caracol, Belize
| Author | Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, John F. Weishampel, Jason B. Drake, Ramesh L. Shrestha, K. Clint Slatton, Jaime J. Awe, William E. Carter |
|---|---|
| Published | February 2011 |
| Format | Research paper |
TL;DR — The 2011 paper showing that airborne LiDAR could map an entire Maya city under rainforest canopy, revealing Caracol’s causeways, terraces and buildings over 200 square km.
Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2011), pp. 387–398, by archaeologists from the University of Central Florida with remote-sensing collaborators from the University of Houston’s National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping and others. The team flew LiDAR over a 200 square km area around Caracol, a Maya site in Belize occupied from about 600 BC to AD 900.
The resulting elevation model “sees” through gaps in the canopy, showing topography, structures, causeways and agricultural terraces with as little as 5–30 cm of relief. The authors argue the data show how radically the Maya reshaped their landscape to sustain a large urban settlement, and that LiDAR would replace traditional ground mapping in tropical regions — a prediction later borne out by large LiDAR surveys across the Maya lowlands.
What it is: a peer-reviewed paper, widely cited as a landmark in archaeological LiDAR.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
12 pages. A PDF copy is held in Kyle’s private archive; it is not linked or shared here.