Gallery: Using Lasers to Reveal the Secrets of Lost Civilizations
Landscape Research Centre, Yorkshire, England01Lidar-2
The northern face of the Yorkshire Wolds, showing development (in dark blue) dating from prehistoric and Roman times.
McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd.0220130619-881650
The Khmer Empire became the powerhouse of Southeast Asia between the 9th and 15th centuries thanks to elaborately complex hydraulic engineering that allowed for year-round rice cultivation. This settlement around the temple of Beng Mealea---25 miles east of Angkor Wat---was discovered by the Khmer Archaeology LiDAR Consortium.
CyArk/Institute of Anthropology and History, Guatemala03perspective-of-the-roof-comb-and-vault-of-temple-iv-created-from-laser-scan-data-1
Temple IV, the tallest structure at Tikal, a large Mayan city in present-day Guatemala. The temple, currently in the process of restoration, is largely unexcavated.
CyArk/Hopi Cultural Preservation Office04perspective-looking-southwest-at-the-cliffs-of-dawa-park-created-from-laser-scan-data
Looking southwest at the cliffs of Dawa Park, a sacred petroglyph site dating from 1200-1950 CE. More than 12,000 carvings grace these rocks, the work of the Hisatsinom, ancestors of the present day Hopi.
Colorado State University05LiDAR1
The pre-Hispanic Purépecha empire rivaled the Aztecs for glory and prominence in central Mexico. Its urban core, located in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in Michoacán dates from 1,000 to 1,520 A.D. and contains the remains of roads, pyramids and a ball court, the first documented in the region.
CyArk/Government of Switzerland, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property and the Horn Heritage Charity06perspective-of-the-point-cloud-data-in-the-royal-quarters-with-intensity-coloring
The caves and shelters of Laas Geel, in Somaliland (an autonomous region of Somalia) contain some of the earliest known and best preserved, cave paintings in the Horn of Africa. The figures, believed to have been created between 3,500-2,500 B.C. show cows and human figures in rich colors. CyArk captured this point cloud with a LiDAR scan of a formation known as the Royal Chambers.
CyArk/Corporación Nacional Forestal07perspective-of-moai-on-the-rano-raraku-slopes-created-from-laser-scan-data-1
Native inhabitants carved these figures between the 13th and 16th centuries, archaeologists believe, as sacred embodiments of departed ancestors. Nearly nine hundred moai exist on the island, and many were moved long distances from the Rano Raraku quarry site.
