In the past decade, Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) has fundamentally changed our ability to remotely detect archaeological features and deepen our understanding of past human-environment interactions, settlement systems, agricultural practices, and monumental constructions. Across archaeological contexts, lidar relief visualization techniques test how local environments impact archaeological prospection. This study used a 132 km2 lidar dataset to assess three relief visualization techniques—sky-view factor (SVF), topographic position index (TPI), and simple local relief model (SLRM)—and object-based image analysis (OBIA) on a slope model for the non-automated visual detection of small hinterland Classic (250–800 CE) Maya settlements near the polities of Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il in Southern Belize. Pedestrian survey in the study area identified 315 plazuelas across a 35 km2 area; the remaining 90 km2 in the lidar dataset is yet to be surveyed. The previously surveyed plazuelas were compared to the plazuelas visually identified on the TPI and SLRM. In total, an additional 563 new possible plazuelas were visually identified across the lidar dataset, using TPI and SLRM. Larger plazuelas, and especially plazuelas located in disturbed environments, are often more likely to be detected in a visual assessment of the TPI and SLRM. These findings emphasize the extent and densitymore »
Archaeological Research in Southern Belize at Uxbenka and Ix Kuku'il
A decade of archaeology research at Uxbenká and five years of archaeological investigations at Ix Kuku’il have resulted in an understanding of the prehistory of these ancient political centers and established a tradition of engaged archaeology in Santa Cruz (Uxbenká) and San Jose (Ix Kuku’il). Over the course of 1000 years Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il were initially settled during the end of the Late Preclassic and beginning of the Early Classic, developed into regional centers as foci of ritual and political events throughout the Early and Late Classic periods, and gradually declined through the Terminal Classic. The chronological sequences of Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il were developed from multiproxy datasets including radiocarbon dates and ceramic analyses, as well as hieroglyphic texts at Uxbenká. Community-based and collaborative archaeology has been a goal of the Uxbenká Archaeological Project (UAP) and resulted in rotational labor programs and Archaeology Days in Santa Cruz and San Jose.
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10199305
- Journal Name:
- Research reports in Belizean archaeology
- Volume:
- 16
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- 311-322
- ISSN:
- 2079-1038
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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