Drone-mounted lasers reveal ancient settlement off Florida coast

[Judi Lynn]

Archaeological remains date from 900 to 1200 CE
Lidar crucial to discovery: ‘This technology is unbelievable’

Victoria Bekiempis

Mon 4 Nov 2019 15.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 5 Nov 2019 17.55 EST

Drone-mounted lasers have revealed details of the architecture of an ancient island settlement off Florida’s Gulf coast, researchers said in a new paper published on Monday.

University of Florida archaeologists, doctoral candidate Terry E Barbour and Professor Ken Sassaman, used aerial drones with light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensors – to create detailed 3D maps of the surface of Raleigh Island.

Although archaeological objects were first spotted on the island in about 1990, and subsequent exploration of the area in 2010 revealed the presence of a settlement dating from 900 to 1200 CE, Lidar scanning revealed previously unknown architectural details.

When researchers initially tried land-based surveys to assess the settlements, they hit roadblocks because of the dense foliage. But the drone-mounted Lidar scanner used by researchers swept 16 lasers over an area, “enabling penetration through gaps” in the thick forest.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/nov/04/drone-lasers-ancient-settlement-florida-lidar-archaeology

[FM123]

1. Very interesting article!

[wnylib]

2. There is some interest among archaeologists

in much older offshore arch exploration around FL and also the Pacific coast to find sites that were lost to rising sea levels during the great glacial melt 10,000 years ago. This technology mighthelp locate such sites.