A valley of lost cities has been discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon. When you hear of such a discovery you might think of archaeologists with chisels and brushes or explorers in pith helmets stumbling across sites deep in the forest. Instead, without needing to brave the hazards of the forest, Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) has revealed networks of buried roads and earthen mounds.
The point of exploratory science is to reveal what has so far been hidden. Whether at the edge of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the bottom of the sea with Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs), or through the canopy of the densest forests with Lidar, we are discovering things that reshape our understanding of the world.
The increasing ability to discover things with technology without having to actually dig them up might lead to questions about whether we are nearing the end of the age of archaeological discovery. Since the 18th century, the scientific search for ancient cities and lost temples has fed our imaginations and filled our museums, but the past is a finite resource.
Now, remote sensors and drones probe the most far-removed places on the globe. So has 300 years of research and recent technological advances left us with little left to be discovered? As an archaeologist with 30 years of experience working on sites, I can tell you it has not.
During my first........