https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298494094_LIDAR_-_A_VALUABLE_TOOL_UNCOVERS_AN_ANCIENT_CITY_IN_MEXICO
TH E PR O J E C T
The Legacies Project was designed to examine the role that migration, climatic change, cultural landscapes, and socio-political fl ux played in the development of ancient complex societies. A major focus of the project is learning how past societies mitigated climate and other socio-natural changes with the ultimate goal of using that knowledge of the past to inform modern policy. In 2008 the Legacies Project began to document thousands of architectural features at the newly discovered ancient city of Sacapu Angamuco (SA) located within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. SA occupies a recent volcanic landscape (locally known as a malpaís) that is covered with a dense understory and a mixed secondary deciduous canopy that makes mapping and surveying in this rugged topography highly challenging. The Legacies Project, with National Science Foundation funding, retained Merrick & Company to partner with the program and make use of light detection and ranging (lidar) to more quickly and accurately document the ancient cultural landscape of SA. Lidar technology would help map not only ancient architecture, but the underlying landscape, in a more cost effective manner than would a traditional archaeological survey. “The SA site will reveal fascinating and important detail on the lives and the culture of the peoples inhabiting the Lake Pátzcuaro region nearly a thousand years ago. We are delighted to have access to the lidar technology which will enable the project to dramatically leap forward, not only in time, but also in detail”, said Rick Miranda, CSU’s provost and executive vice president.
BA C K G R O U N D
The Legacies Project has included archaeologists, geologists, and geographers from the United States and Mexico, documenting the previously unknown ancient city as part of a larger full-coverage landscape survey. At the time of European contact the site was the core of the Purépecha (Tarascan) Empire, which dominated much of Western Mexico. Much is known about the region at the time of Conquest but the pre-empire period remains poorly understood. SA dates predominantly back to the pre-state period, meaning that a full understanding of this urban center can yield new insights into the development of complex societies in the region. Architectural remains at SA, which was primarily occupied between 1000 A.D. and 1350 A.D., cover more than 10 square kilometers and all of this area was modifi ed by human action. Though population estimates are diffi cult to reconstruct, we feel that during the predominant occupation, the city may have held as many as 30,000 residents. The rugged topography is not suitable for modern land-use, resulting in the preservation of architectural features not usually seen in the region including building foundations, roads, granaries, mounds, platforms, pyramids, and others. Estimates for the total number of such features are upwards of 20,000. All of this architecture is arranged into plaza groups, neighborhoods, districts, and other social and natural divisions within the city.
LIDAR - A VALUABLE TOOL UNCOVERS AN ANCIENT CITY IN MEXICO (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298494094_LIDAR_-_A_VALUABLE_TOOL_UNCOVERS_AN_ANCIENT_CITY_IN_MEXICO [accessed Feb 24 2018].
