Laser Light Imaging, Detection, And Ranging Technology or "LIDAR" Revolutionizing Archaeology

"Lidar is revolutionising archaeology the way the Hubble Space Telescope revolutionised astronomy," Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Tulane University archaeologist, told National Geographic.

LASER SCANS REVEAL MAYA “MEGALOPOLIS” 

BELOW GUATEMALAN JUNGLE 

 "Using a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (short for 'Light Detection And Ranging'), scholars digitally removed the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape, revealing the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed."

BBC News Report: Sprawling Maya network discovered 

under Guatemala jungle 

How Does Lidar Work?  This NEON Science video overviews what lidar or light detection and ranging is, how it works and what types of information it can provide. The video was produced by the National Ecological Observatory Network - a non profit project devoted to open science and open data:

 Meanwhile in Cambodia...

Beyond Angkor: How lasers revealed a lost city 

And in the UK:  Archaeologists have discovered more than 3,000 historical sites and monuments in the New Forest thanks to Lidar (Light Detecting and Ranging). The technique beams harmless lasers into the ground to build a 3D map, revealing the hidden history of the New Forest including a Roman road: 

 This short film shows the landscape around Stonehenge as recorded by LIDAR survey (airborne 3D scanning). Millions of measurements were taken across the landscape, and here they have been turned into a 'solid' computer model to show how well the archaeology is recorded by this method:

A website set up by the US Geological Survey and  intended to "facilitate data access, user coordination and education of lidar remote sensing for scientific needs":

 USGS Center for LIDAR Information Coordination and Knowledge 

Lidar Industry News and Education