The Petén region of northern Guatemala contains some of the most significant Maya archaeological sites in Latin America. It was in this region that the Maya civilization began, flourished, and abruptly collapsed. Remote sensing technology is helping to locate and map ancient Maya sites that are threatened today by accelerating deforestation and looting. Thematic Mapper, IKONOS, and QuickBird satellite, and airborne STAR-3i and AIRSAR radar data, combined with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, are successfully detecting ancient Maya features such as sites, roadways, canals, and water reservoirs. Satellite imagery is also being used to map the bajos, which are seasonally flooded swamps that cover over 40% of the land surface. The use of bajos for farming and settlement by the ancient Maya has been a source of debate within the professional community for many years. But the detection and verification of cultural features within the bajo system within the last few years are providing conclusive evidence that the ancient Maya had adapted well to wetland environments from the earliest times and utilized them until the time of the Maya collapse. In the last two years, we have discovered that there is a strong relationship between a tropical forest vegetation signature in IKONOS satellite imagery and the location of archaeological sites. We believe that the use of limestone and lime plasters in ancient Maya construction affects the moisture, nutrition, and plant species of the surface vegetation. We have mapped these vegetation signatures in the imagery and verified through field survey that they are indicative of archaeological sites. However, we have not yet determined the nature of the spectral signature in the imagery and that is a focus of our ongoing research. Through the use of remote sensing and GIS technology it is possible to identify unrecorded archaeological features in a dense tropical forest environment and monitor these cultural features for their protection.
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Saturno, W., Sever, T.L., Irwin, D.E., Howell, B.F., Garrison, T.G. (2006). Putting Us on the Map: Remote Sensing Investigation of the Ancient Maya Landscape. In: Wiseman, J., El-Baz, F. (eds) Remote Sensing in Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Contributions To Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-44455-6_6
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