Lidar Uncovers Hundreds of Lost Maya and Olmec Ruins | WIRED

Lidar Uncovers Hundreds of Lost Maya and Olmec Ruins | WIRED: Ideas%20That%20Link%20Civilizations%0AThe%20oldest%20known%20Olmec%20site%20is%20a%20ceremonial%20complex%20at%20San%20Lorenzo%20in%20Mexico%u2019s%20Tabasco%20state%2C%20which%20enjoyed%20a%20300-year%20heyday%20from%20about%201400%20to%201100%20BC%2C%20making%20it%20a%20few%20centuries%20older%20than%20the%20Maya%20site%20at%20Aguada%20Fenix.%20Until%20recently%2C%20archaeologists%20believed%20the%20two%20sites%20were%20very%20different%2C%20but%20while%20poring%20over%20the%20recent%20lidar%20survey%2C%20Inomata%20and%20his%20colleagues%20noticed%20something%20that%20everyone%20else%20had%20missed%3A%20a%20rectangular%20plaza%20lined%20on%20two%20sides%20with%20earthen%20platforms%2C%20like%20the%20ones%20at%20Aguada%20Fenix%20and%20the%20hundreds%20of%20other%20sites%20revealed%20by%20the%20lidar.%20No%20one%20had%20been%20able%20to%20see%20it%20from%20the%20ground%20before.%0A%0A%u201CThis%20tells%20us%20that%20San%20Lorenzo%20is%20important%20for%20the%20beginning%20of%20some%20of%20these%20ideas%20that%20were%20later%20used%20by%20the%20Maya%2C%u201D%20said%20Inomata.%20If%20the%20Olmec%20were%20building%20ritual%20centers%20with%20rectangular%2C%20platform-lined%20plazas%20pointed%20at%20sunrise%20on%20important%20days%20at%20least%20300%20years%20before%20the%20Maya%20did%20so%2C%20then%20the%20Maya%20may%20have%20inherited%20those%20concepts%20%28and%20probably%20their%20religious%20underpinnings%29%20from%20the%20Olmec.%0A%0ABut%20other%20evidence%20suggests%20that%20the%20Maya%20may%20not%20have%20borrowed%20everything%20from%20the%20Olmec.%0A%0A