Archaeologists have been using lasers to uncover ancient civilizations that were previously hidden.
Planes beam thousands of laserpulses from the sky to penetrate through the forest canopy. Three-dimensional maps beneath the vegetation reveal human-built structures.
State-of-the-art LiDAR technology has led to the discovery of five previously unknown civilizations.
Researchers found a 2,000-year-old Maya civilization with over a thousand archaeological sites using lasers.
The civilization consisted of more than 400 cities, towns, and villages spread over 650 square miles.
The settlement had over 100 ball courts and over 100 miles of causeways.
In December, the findings were published.
Researchers found 478 sites that were between 2,000 and 3000 years old.
The Olmec and Maya civilization flourished in a 32,800- square-mile area in the Mexican state of Tabasco.
Archeologists use the finding to connect the cultures.
An anthropologist with the University of Arizona who co-authored the study said in a press release that it was "unthinkable to study an area this large until a few years ago."
Researchers used laser technology to map the location of the ancient Maya civilization.
They found 61,480 long- lost roads, foundations for houses, and elevated causeways. The dates are from 650 and 800CE in the Late Classic Period.
The amount of land modification done by the Maya over their entire landscape on a scale previously unimaginable is what datememe datememe shows.
In Brazil's Mato Grasso region, archaeologists found evidence of 24 sites with 81 earth works, which included roads and fortified villages built on mounds.
The structures are thought to have supported a civilization with a population of up to 1 million people.
The sites carved into the earth were up to 1,300 feet across.
According to the Wall Street Journal, there may be hundreds more hidden in the jungle.
It looks like it was a mosaic of cultures.
The hidden ruins of 26 Indigenous settlement sites, nine of which were new discoveries, were found in what is now Bolivia.
The Casarabe culture lived in an area between 500 and 1,400CE.
They found platforms and pyramids that were up to 72 feet high.
Researchers wrote in the journal Nature that their results put to rest the idea that western Amazonia was sparse in the pre-Hispanic era.
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