Running out of empty space: environmental lidar and the crowded ancient landscape of Campeche, Mexico

• Autores: Luke Auld Thomas, Marcello A. Canuto, Adriana Velázquez Morlet, Francisco Estrada-Belli, David Chatelain, Diego Matadamas, Michelle Pigott, Juan C. Fernandez Diaz
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 98, Nº 401, 2024, págs. 1340-1358
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • As airborne lidar surveys reveal a growing sample of urbanised tropical landscapes, questions linger about the sampling bias of such research leading to inflated estimates of urban extent and population magnitude. ‘Found’ datasets from remote sensing conducted for non-archaeological purposes and thus not subject to archaeological site bias, provide an opportunity to address these concerns through pseudorandom sampling. Here, the authors present their analysis of an environmental lidar dataset from Campeche, Mexico, which reveals previously unrecorded urbanism and dense regional-scale settlement. Both characteristics, the authors argue, are therefore demonstrably ubiquitous across the central Maya Lowlands.