Lidar data and the Izapa polity: new results and methodological issues from tropical Mesoamerica
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Lidar data and the Izapa polity: new results and methodological issues from tropical Mesoamerica Robert M. Rosenswig & Ricardo López-Torrijos & Caroline E. Antonelli
Received: 13 May 2014 / Accepted: 8 August 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract Light detection and ranging (lidar) and pedestrian survey are employed to document regional settlement patterns associated with the well-known center of Izapa in Chiapas, Mexico. Within an area of 47.5 km2, we located 413 previously undocumented mounds with associated time diagnostic artifacts. These mounds are the remains of both monumental architecture defining regional centers as well as domestic house mounds. This paper presents new data of overall occupation levels from the low hills zone that complements previously published patterns from the piedmont surrounding Izapa as well as eight newly documented Middle and Late Formative period (850 cal. BC–AD 100) monumental centers of various sizes that are coeval with Izapa. In addition to these substantive archaeological findings, the efficacy of lidar data acquired from two environmental zones (low hills and piedmont) are compared to evaluate how well Prehispanic mounds were detected under different vegetation covers. We conclude that the lower density of lidar collection from the low hills zone was as effective at detecting archaeological mounds as the higher density collection campaign used in the piedmont zone. The implication of these findings is that higher-density collection strategies may not always improve the documentation of archaeological features.
Keywords Izapa . Lidar . Settlement survey . Mesoamerica Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-014-0210-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. R. M. Rosenswig (*) : C. E. Antonelli Department of Anthropology, University at Albany-SUNY, Albany, NY 12222, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. López-Torrijos CasaAlba Consulting, Albany, NY 12203, USA
Introduction Light detection and ranging (lidar) data are changing how archaeologists document archaeological landscapes at a regional scale. This is especially the case in inaccessible areas of the world with thick vegetation cover. In northern Europe, archaeological management in areas of dense forest provides the impetus for developments in lidar use (e.g., Bollandsås et al. 2012; Deveraux et al. 2005; Doneus et al. 2008). Lidar technology is providing new understanding of ancient cultures in tropical regions of the world from Cambodia to Florida (e.g., Evans et al. 2013; Randall 2014). In Mesoamerica, lidar data provide a new perspective on the lowland Maya city of Caracol as well as the highland city of Angamuco (Chase et al. 2011, 2012; Fisher et al. 2011). Lidar data collected by the Izapa Regional Settlement Project (IRSP) have allowed us to remap the well-known city of Izapa (Lowe et al. 1982), revealing new architectural features from the site core as well as documenting changing demographic
