Sydney Uni team uses LIDAR to find ancient lost Cambodian city

[gary]

The Sydney Morning Herald this morning reports that a team of archaeologists
have discovered using LIDAR technology a lost Cambodian city on a
misty mountaintop hidden in the jungle for the past 1200 years.

Originally Posted by Lindsay Murdoch, Sydney Morning Herald

Archaeologists and exploration and mapping experts have uncovered more than two dozen previously unrecorded temples and evidence of ancient canals, dykes and roads using satellite navigation co-ordinates gathered from the instrument's data.

Fairfax Media recorded the discovery of the first five temples after pushing through landmine-strewn jungle, swollen rivers and bogs with the expedition on a mountain called Phnom Kulen, 40 kilometres north of Angkor Wat in north-western Cambodia.

Story and video here here -
http://www.smh.com.au/world/lost-hor...614-2o9p3.html

[AstralTraveller (David)]

That's great stuff! I've seen LIDAR used on Time Team where it is good at finding old earth-works around castles. It sounds like this was a bit more challenging than the English countryside, but the reward is also greater. In England they are basically filling in details of a well known story. Here they are discovering the story.

I know people at work use LIDAR data but I think it's for landscape type work (eg. mapping old river channels). With one possible exception, I can't see how LIDAR can help in Australian archaeology.