[Aztlan] Maya ruins found from space photo

[David Hixson]

Estimados Listeros,

As many people have expressed a desire to know more
(both on and off-list), I would like to give another
brief summary of what is going on with archaeological
remote sensing research across the Maya area.  Forgive
me if some of this has been mentioned in previous
posts...

THE PETEN:
Numerous scholars have been working with remote
sensing data in recent years in the Peten.

Bill Saturno, along with Tom Sever’s NASA team, has
been working largely with IKONOS data (high resolution
multispectral data), correlating discolorations in the
forest canopy with new and undiscovered sites in the
San Bartolo region.  Tom Sever has been working for
many years in the Peten, and his publication in the
edited volume “Pixels and People” is a good summary of
his earlier work.

While everyone agreed during the planning meetings for
the AirSAR (Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission
to cover San Bartolo, we unfortunately did not have
that particular area covered as of the last meeting. 
However, other areas of the Peten were covered by the
Mesoamerican AirSAR mission, including Tikal.

It is at Tikal that some wonderful new research is
being conducted by Tim Murtha.  Tim is mapping the
earthworks and surrounding settlements on the
outskirts of the city.  He too was part of the AirSAR
mission and is currently evaluating whether that data
set can detect cultural features of the landscape
around Tikal.  (Yes, there is still much more to
explore at Tikal!)

Jessica Munson, with Takeshi Inomata, is examining the
use of remote sensing data at the site of Seibal in
conjunction with the new excavations there.  She was
also a participant in the AirSAR mission.

Richard Terry, as a part of the AirSAR group, has
taken a fascinating approach to the AirSAR data.  He
and his students are attempting to find correlations
between soils and radar backscatter values in the
hopes of identifying areas where corn was grown.

There are more researchers working in the Peten on
remote sensing issues, but that is a short list of
those whose work I am most familiar with.

USUMACINTA:

Charles Golden is performing critical survey work in
the Usumacinta drainage, documenting archaeological
sites that are threatened by the proposed
hydroelectric dam.  He is using Landsat and AirSAR
(among other platforms) to aid his survey work, and he
is one of the organizers of the AirSAR campaign.

YUCATAN:

Terry Winemiller recently presented on his use of
Landsat and GIS to examine whether settlement patterns
are affected by the Chicxulub meteor crater and its
associated ring of cenotes.  He is also a part of the
AirSAR group and is working on evaluating that data
for identifying cultural features.

Bill Ringle, Tomas Gallareta and George Bey are
working in the Puuc region.  Bill is a former NASA
fellow and has been using remotely sensed data for
quite some time.  Currently he and his team are
working on a corridor between Labna and Kiuic.  By
using the AirSAR DEM (digital elevation model), they
have been able to evaluate and refine other data sets,
such as INEGI topo maps and the SRTM (Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission) data.  In the Puuc, topography is
proving to be a prime element affecting regional
settlement and agricultural patterns.

Kevin Pope (formerly of NASA-JPL) has been working for
many years on archaeological remote sensing,
especially in Yucatan and Belize.  He worked with data
from the first AirSAR campaign, and is a member of the
current mission.  He was one of the researchers who
helped identify the Chicxulub meteor crater.  He has
published on the use of SIR-C (Shuttle Imaging Radar)
data to better understand how the underground
structure of the meteor crater affects water drainage
in the western Maya wetlands.

Working with the support of NASA-SSC, I have been
working for many years on a regional survey of the
western Maya wetlands near Chunchucmil - largely
attempting to correlate spectral signatures from
multispectral data (Landsat 7) with archaeological
sites.  More recently I have worked with the AirSAR
group and Kevin Pope on using SAR to complement the
multispectral data.  I had previously posted some
images from my work on the Aztlan server:

AirSAR Digital Elevation Model (perspective view) of
downtown Chunchucmil, mounds in this scene vary from
approximately 5 meters to 18 meters in height
http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/chunchucmil-airsar.jpg

Landsat 7 ETM+ image of Chunchucmil and the western
Maya wetlands (bands 542 – unsupervised histogram
stretch)
http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/chunchucmil-landsat.jpg

Example of a “spectral plot” of reflectance values in
the Landsat ETM+ image noted above (simplified to
highlight the breakpoints differentiating known
archaeological mounds from forest, grassland and water
– most notable in the near and mid infrared bands 4
and 5).
http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/chun-spectral-plot.jpg

Others are using this technology both within and
outside of the Maya area, including wonderful work in
Costa Rica.  As you can see, there are many projects
underway at this very moment and we can look forward
to some fascinating publications in the coming years. 
If there are others on this list who would like to add
how they are using remotely sensed data in their work,
I would love to hear about it!

Saludos,

-Dave

__________________________________________________
David R. Hixson
Doctoral Candidate
Tulane University
Dept. of Anthropology
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