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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Archaeologists discovered 478 Mesoamerican monuments hidden in the jungles of southeastern <keyword id="11933000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mexico" source="Orion">Mexico</keyword>.</li><li>They located the ruins by analyzing 3D mapping data collected from the air using lasers.</li></ul><p>Several millennia ago, the <keyword id="12412477" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="olmec" source="Orion">Olmec</keyword> and <keyword id="12412476" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="maya" source="Orion">Maya</keyword> civilizations flourished in what are now Mexico and Guatemala. They built massive stone <keyword id="12412475" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pyramids" source="Orion">pyramids</keyword> and elevated rectangular plazas for rituals and ceremonies, but over time many these sites were lost to the jungle, subsumed under dense vegetation.</p><p>But over the last few years, archaeologists have started leveraging a new technology to find these hidden, Mesoamerican ruins: <keyword id="12004013" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lidar" source="Orion">LIDAR</keyword>, a system that can generate three-dimensional maps by bouncing lasers between a scanner in the air and the Earth below.</p><p>LIDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, can reveal how close or far away the ground is from the scanner, which in turn helps reveal discrepancies in the landscape. </p><p>In <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01218-1">a study</a> published Monday, researchers describe how they used this kind of laser mapping data to uncover nearly 500 Mesoamerican sites between about 2,000 and 3,000 years old.</p><p>The sites are spread across a 32,800-square-mile area in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Vera Cruz, and they may shed light on how the Olmecs and Maya coexisted and shared ideas. </p><p>"It was unthinkable to study an area this large until a few years ago," Takeshi Inomata, an anthropologist with the University of Arizona who co-authored the study, said <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-10-ancient-ceremonial-sites-southern-mexico.html">in a press release</a>. </p><p>Inomata and her collaborators say theirs is the most extensive archaeological study ever done of Mesoamerica using LIDAR.</p><h2>Hiding under the tree canopy</h2><div type="image" title="aguada fenix lidar" height="682" width="1024" msid="87347085" hostid="261"></div><p>LIDAR technology is typically used to map the ocean floor, but Inomata's team had already found that it can pay archaeological dividends. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2343-4">Last year</a>, they used LIDAR to discover a Mayan site called Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, which dates back at least 2,800 years. It's the oldest and largest Mayan ceremonial complex ever found, and contains a 50-foot-high rectangular plateau that's nearly a mile long.</p><p>Hoping to repeat that success, the researchers examined publicly available LIDAR data collected by the Mexican government between 2017 and 2019, which focused on a jungle area in the southeastern part of the country near the Guatemalan border.</p><p>The 3D-mapping revealed 478 separate sites hidden under the tree canopy. The team visited many of the places of foot to confirm the discoveries, since the closest LIDAR can zoom is at a scale of 16 feet. Typically, archaeologists prefer to zoom in five times closer than that - to a scale of about 3 feet.</p><p>The monuments can be categorized into five distinct groups based on their architecture and layout, the study suggested. An elevated rectangular structure, like Aguada Fénix, was one type, while another was a conical building with a platform built to the east.</p><p>The types likely correspond to different eras of the Olmec and Maya civilizations.</p><h2>Were these sister cultures, or did one birth the other? </h2><div type="image" title="maya pyramid tabasco" height="2985" width="3980" msid="87347086" hostid="261"></div><p>Archaeologists disagree as to whether the Olmecs and Maya existed separately in time and geography, as sister cultures, or whether the former birthed the latter. </p><p>But the new findings could help clarify the two civilizations' relationship.</p><p>The Mayans' heyday happened between about 250 and 950 CE, but that's at least 650 years after the construction date of the youngest of the 478 sites that Inomata's team discovered. This suggests groups who preceded the Maya built those structures. </p><p>The LIDAR data also revealed that one Olmec site, known as San Lorenzo, had a large rectangular plaza similar to the one in Aguada Fénix. Both of those platforms aligned with sunrise on certain dates, too. So to Inomata, that suggests San Lorenzo was an inspiration for the Mayan site, as well as others like it in the region.</p><p>"This tells us that San Lorenzo is very important for the beginning of some of these ideas that were later used by the Maya," he said.</p>

Archaeologists used lasers to find nearly 500 Mesoamerican monuments hidden in the Mexican jungle

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/12-amazing-archaeological-discoveries-of-2022-that-explored-humanitys-past-2022-12">Archeologists</a> beam lasers from the sky to unearth ancient settlements hiding in plain sight.</li><li>Lidar uses laser pulses to penetrate dense vegetation, revealing human-built structures underneath.</li></ul><p>In recent years, archaeologists have turned to lasers in order to unearth previously hidden ancient civilizations.</p><p>A laser technology<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-lidar"> known as lidar</a> — short for<a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Light Detection and Ranging</a> — beams tens of thousands of laser pulses per second from planes or helicopters at the ground below, penetrating through thick, deep forest canopy. That provides researchers with data to create three-dimensional maps by digitally removing the vegetation, revealing human-built structures underneath.</p><p>Researchers have found hundreds of structures in areas <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191071151/maya-city-ocomtun-lasers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once thought</a> too inhospitable for human habitation. The aerial views help them understand how far these cities and villages stretched, which archaeologists <a href="https://archive.archaeology.org/1007/etc/caracol.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found difficult</a> to map before lidar. </p><p>From a Maya city to complex villages deep in the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/graph-shows-deforestation-the-amazon-bolsonaro-vs-lula-2022-10"> Brazilian Amazon</a>, here are six previously unknown civilizations that were discovered through state-of-the-art lidar technology.</p><h2>Maya pyramidal structures in the Yucatán Peninsula</h2><div type="image" title="A gray lidar image of an ancient Maya site archaeologists named Ocomtún on the Yucatán Peninsula" height="673" width="898" msid="103294639" hostid="261" sizebytes="94368"></div><p>About 40 miles inside the dense vegetation of the Balamkú ecological reserve on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers found the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archaeologists-found-remains-ancient-mayan-village-mexico-2023-6">remains of a Maya city</a>. </p><p>Based on pottery archaeologists found at the site, Maya people probably inhabited the city between 600 and 800 CE and perhaps earlier. Over about 123 acres, the city center contained 50-foot pyramidal structures, plazas, stone columns, and altars, according to the <a href="https://inah.gob.mx/boletines/descubren-antigua-ciudad-maya-campeche-la-nombran-ocomtun-columna-de-piedra" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 study</a>.  </p><p>"Architecturally, it was truly massive," archaeologist Ivan Šprajc told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230704-ocomtn-a-long-lost-maya-city-that-was-just-discovered" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>. "So, it's clear this must have been a politically important center."</p><p>An estimated 6 to 8 million Maya people live throughout the Americas. Thus, the culture never disappeared, but Šprajc said such archaeological finds can help scientists understand what led to "a drastic demographic decline" by the 10th century. </p><h2><strong>A hidden 2,000-year-old Maya civilization in northern Guatemala</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Example of structures found with LiDAR." height="2590" width="1650" msid="96666798" hostid="261"></div><p>Using laser pulses, researchers detected a 2,000-year-old Maya civilization in the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin region of northern Guatemala with nearly 1,000 archaeological sites.</p><p>From their topographical maps of the area, they determined that the civilization consisted of more than 417 cities, towns, and villages spread across 650 square miles. They published their findings in 2022 in the journal<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/lidar-analyses-in-the-contiguous-miradorcalakmul-karst-basin-guatemala-an-introduction-to-new-perspectives-on-regional-early-maya-socioeconomic-and-political-organization/31075DFA8ADBAA5E7C7320CA6DB93E5E" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Ancient Mesoamerica</a>.</p><p>The settlement had dozens of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zq6svcw/articles/zbqyy4j" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ball courts</a> and 110 combined miles of elevated limestone-and-clay causeways that allowed ancient Mayas to travel over wetlands and between different sites. </p><p>"They're the world's first superhighway system that we have," Richard Hansen, the study's lead author, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/world/maya-civilization-causeways-lidar-discovery-scn/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>.</p><h2><strong>Nearly 500 long-lost Maya and Olmec ceremonial sites in Mexico</strong></h2><h2><div type="image" title="A map and lidar images of nearly 500 ceremonial complexes in the Olmec and Maya regions of Mexico." height="750" width="1000" msid="103294640" hostid="261" sizebytes="63378"></div></h2><p>In 2021, researchers published a <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=66d193c76bdcd0a95b51fd95dddfbb6c43fd3e064e2e216d6efb8d1b483e7be9&amp;postID=63adde6e722a682d406b08c8&amp;postSlug=ancient-civilizations-that-were-hiding-in-plain-sight-2023-1&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41562-021-01218-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> detailing how they had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/laser-mapping-technology-uncovers-lost-mesoamerican-ruins-mexico-2021-10">used lidar to uncover</a> 478 Mesoamerican sites they estimated were between 2,000 and 3,000 years old.</p><p>The sites are spread across a 32,800-square-mile area in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz, where the Olmec and Maya civilizations flourished.</p><p>"It was unthinkable to study an area this large until a few years ago," Takeshi Inomata, an anthropologist with the University of Arizona who co-authored the study, said <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-10-ancient-ceremonial-sites-southern-mexico.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a press release</a> at the time.</p><p>The finding helps archeologists connect the two cultures. The dates of construction and similarity of certain structures suggest that an Olmec site, San Lorenzo, provided inspiration for some Maya monuments.   </p><h2><strong>61,480 previously unknown structures hidden under the dense Guatemalan jungle</strong></h2><div type="image" title="LiDAR laser technology yielded a remarkable discovery in Guatemala’s forest: ancient cities with more than 60,000 structures." height="533" width="800" msid="96666802" hostid="261"></div><p>In<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau0137" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 2018</a>, researchers explained how they used laser technology to map Petén, Guatemala, where Maya people once lived.</p><p>They discovered 61,480 long-lost roads, foundations for houses, military fortifications, and elevated causeways. They all date back to 650 and 800 CE, during the<a href="https://www.marc.ucsb.edu/research/maya/ancient-maya-civilization/classic-period" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> late Classic period</a>. </p><p>The researchers estimate as many as 11 million people could have lived in the interconnected cities.  </p><p>"Seen as a whole, terraces and irrigation channels, reservoirs, fortifications, and causeways reveal an astonishing amount of land modification done by the Maya over their entire landscape on a scale previously unimaginable," Francisco Estrada-Belli, an anthropologist at Tulane University and co-author of the study, said in a<a href="https://news.tulane.edu/pr/unprecedented-study-confirms-massive-scale-lowland-maya-civilization" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> press release</a>.</p><h2><strong>81 earthworks, including fortified villages and roads, deep in the Amazon rainforest</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="amazon mound" height="1080" width="1920" msid="96666804" hostid="261"></div><p>In Brazil's Mato Grasso region, <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=d316bcb5e97235177320dfb7d3db009fc10f446a819db007d2f8cf84a9586e02&amp;postID=63adde6e722a682d406b08c8&amp;postSlug=ancient-civilizations-that-were-hiding-in-plain-sight-2023-1&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41467-018-03510-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">archaeologists using</a> lidar found<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archaeologists-found-previously-undiscovered-settlements-in-the-amazon-2018-3"> evidence</a> of 24 sites with 81 earthworks, which included interconnected roads and fortified villages built on mounds.</p><p>They believe the structures may have supported a complex civilization with up to 1 million people between the years 1250 and 1500 CE.</p><p>Some of the geoglyphs, as archaeologists call the sites carved into the Earth, were up to a quarter of a mile across.</p><p>Hundreds more sites may be hidden in the jungle in a "continuous string of settlements," Jonas Gregorio de Souza, the paper's lead author, told<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/satellites-reveal-ancient-civilization-beneath-the-amazon-rainforest-1522162800" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> The Wall Street Journal</a> in 2018.</p><p>"These people were combining small-scale agriculture with management of useful tree species," de Souza told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/03/27/archaeologists-discover-81-ancient-settlements-in-the-amazon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>. "So it was more a sustainable kind of land use" than current land-clearing practices.</p><h2><strong>A wide-ranging ancient civilization buried in the Bolivian Amazon </strong></h2><div type="image" title="This screenshot from a lidar-based 3-D animation shows the layout of Cotoca, a primary site in an ancient Amazonian urban network. Raised causeways radiate in different directions from platform mounds, pyramids and other structures." height="810" width="1440" msid="96666805" hostid="261"></div><p>In what is now Bolivia, lidar revealed the hidden ruins of 26 Indigenous settlement sites, 11 of which were new discoveries, that thrived in the Amazon rainforest more than 600 years ago.</p><p>"Our results put to rest arguments that western Amazonia was sparsely populated in pre-Hispanic times," researchers wrote in the journal<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=cf791a5f8faa2e3a25d1da877bdbebc505f20432b9010eb15dd40f00e875cbf7&amp;postID=63adde6e722a682d406b08c8&amp;postSlug=ancient-civilizations-that-were-hiding-in-plain-sight-2023-1&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41586-022-04780-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Nature</a>.</p><p>People from the Casarabe Culture created canals, stepped platform buildings, and 72-foot conical pyramids, which occupied an area of approximately 1,700 square miles between 500 and 1,400 CE. The lidar maps helped the researchers see how the spread-out settlements fit together.</p><p>Heiko Prümers, a co-author of the study, theorized that the Casarabe may have left the settlement due to lack of rainfall. "We know that there were severe droughts in the Amazon regions several times in history," he told <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lost-cities-of-the-amazon-discovered-from-the-air-180980142/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Smithsonian Magazine</a> in 2022. "That might have happened to this culture as well." </p>

Lasers revealed 6 ancient civilizations that were hiding in plain sight

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jet-jurgensmeyer-colin-critchley-isabela-moner-mike-news-photo/613072516">Nicohlas Hunt/Getty</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Any '80s or '90s kid who watched Nickelodeon will remember the epic kids' game show "Legends of the Hidden Temple." Now, Nickelodeon has rebooted the franchise with a full-length <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rge71YKo5sY">"Legends of the Hidden Temple" movie</a>, and the network brought the nostalgia factor to a special New York Comic Con panel featuring both the original and new cast. </p><p>The host of the show, Kirk Fogg, plus the man behind Olmec, Dee Bradley Bakery, were on hand to answer questions about the series.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Nickelodeon</span></p><p class="caption">Kirk Fogg and "Olmec" on the set of "Legends of the Hidden Temple."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Both Fogg and Baker are in the upcoming feature film, reprising their roles as "host" and "Olmec" with a cast of three young kids. But during the NYCC panel, much of the conversation was focused on the original Nickelodeon series. </p><p>One of the first things asked during an audience Q&amp;A was about the Shrine of the Silver Monkey - a section of the temple-themed obstacle course that seemed to trip up contestants again and again. </p><p>"I wanted to know why the heck nobody could put together the silver monkey in the temple?" a woman asked Fogg and Bradley.</p><p>"There's an answer for that," Fogg said quickly. "Yeah. Well, the answer to that question is IT WAS REALLY HARD!" </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dee-bradley-baker-and-kirk-fogg-speak-at-legends-of-the-news-photo/613072626">Nicohlas Hunt/Getty</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The fan wasn't buying it. "But it was three pieces!" she yelled back.</p><p>"I know but you gotta remember that the Temple was ginormous," Fogg replied. "It was all the way down at the other side so by the time you get down there, first of all you're really out of gas. Then it's all silver, okay? And then the base seems like the pretty easy one to do but sometimes you can get it turned around the wrong way. But then it was the second piece - that was the tough one."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div></p><p>We should take Fogg's word for it. Earlier in the panel he told the audience that he would run the temple obstacle course before each season began, so he knew what the kids were up against. Apparently the silver monkey just appears deceptively simple.</p><p>"It could be upside down and you couldn't tell that it was upside down," Bradley chimed in. "And then you just think you're crazy and you use the other piece when it's really that one."</p><p>The final piece - the monkey's head on a long stoical - always seemed trickiest. Kids would struggle to get the pole all the way through the other pieces.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Nickelodeon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Sometimes I would just yell from my microphone 'JUST JAM IT DOWN! JAM IT!'" Fogg said as the audience laughed.</p><p>If you still don't believe in the Silver Monkey's tricky powers, Nickelodeon has set up an interactive booth at New York Comic Con. Anyone can try their hand at assembling the Silver Monkey as fast as possible. And don't worry, there are no temple guards on stand-by who can scare you.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rge71YKo5sY">"Legends of the Hidden Temple" movie</a> premieres November 26th on Nickelodeon.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-woman-shared-her-beauty-tips-while-fighting-cancer-2016-9">This woman shared her beauty tips while fighting cancer</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="oycml3NTE6mJoJzLx6w5cqMkWvLeAycY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The 'Legends of the Hidden Temple' host explains why putting together the silver monkey was so hard

<p>In Colorado <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/09/13/3-dead-in-colorado-floods/">at least</a> three people are dead, streets are flooded, and mountain towns are isolated after days <span>of heavy rain caused flash flooding that is expected to continue Friday.</span></p>
<p><span>"<span>In Boulder, the rainfall record for September set in 1940 was shattered," Keith Coffman of Reuters <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/three-dead-thousands-evacuated-colorado-flooding-023123640.html">reports</a>.</span></span></p>
<p><span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Surging<span> Boulder Creek </span>floodwaters, coming from <span>Boulder Canyon above <span>the city, are now running </span>through its heart.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>"There's so much water coming out of the canyon, it has to go somewhere, and unfortunately it's coming into the city," Ashlee Herring, spokeswoman for the Boulder office of Emergency Management, told Reuters.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span>The torrent t</span><span>riggered the evacuation of some 4,000 residents late on Thursday.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"There's no way out of town. There's no way into town. So, basically, now we're just on an island," Jason Stillman, 37, who was forced to evacuate his home in Lyons at about 3 a.m., <a href="http://www.weather.com/news/weather-severe/flash-flood-swamps-boulder-northern-colorado-20130912">told</a> The <keyword id="6359992" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Weather">Weather</keyword> Channel.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">It's clear why some people are stranded:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source on-image">REUTERS/Rick Wilking </p></div></div></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Here's a video:</span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The caption for the photo below reads: </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">This was the bear creek bike path earlier today just a few blocks from the house and Olmec office. This is now multiple feet higher and going over the road the photo was taken from!"</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> <br /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"<span>If anyone is free to help tomorrow. A friend of mine could use some. This is his living room.</span>"</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Traffic is impossible during yesterday Thu. 12 sep. 2013"</span></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>"<span>In Boulder we don't have streets but creeks</span>"</p>
<p></p>
<p><div class="image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source on-image">REUTERS/Mark Leffingwell </p><p class="caption">Neighbors survey a dike created to funnel water down 7th Street as heavy rains cause severe flooding in Boulder, Colorado September 12, 2013.</p></div></div></p>

You Searched For "olmec" and got 4 results

Archaeologists used lasers to find nearly 500 Mesoamerican monuments hidden in the Mexican jungle

Aylin Woodward

Lasers revealed 6 ancient civilizations that were hiding in plain sight

Paola Rosa-Aquino

The 'Legends of the Hidden Temple' host explains why putting together the silver monkey was so hard

Kim Renfro

11 Images From Boulder, Colorado Flooding That Are Heartbreaking And Surreal

Michael Kelley

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