So....maybe this was a bit more than simply a religious/ceremonial site...?

[kentauros]

1. I'll have to read more later.

The part that stood out was their technique for finding these new monuments: ground-penetrating radar. The "3D laser scanning" is likely just LiDAR which is something being used extensively now in normal land surveying. It's the radar tech that's most important.

I remember an early Space Shuttle mission where they had a radar imaging device on board. I had to look it up again, but it's called the Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B.)

I can remember being extremely excited by the results NASA released, such as how it showed ancient riverbeds under the Sahara, and in recent years showing the location of possible pyramids and other ruins in the Amazonian rain forests. I long for the day when we fund scientific endeavors like that and let us all see the images (as in, don't let the DoD squirrel away any of it.) The things still out there on our ancient planet we could find...

Thanks for sharing!


http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=422