He had almost five millennia hidden under the Romanian forest

Lidar has become a central tool in archaeological work. One that has allowed us to find entire cities Lost centuries ago Inside dense forest areas in remote places. But we must not go too far to run into findings promoted by this technology.

Bronze age strength. An example is in the remains of a fortress recently found In the Neamt district, in Romania. The remains have been dated in the early bronze age, and their finding was made through measurements by lidar

Lidar. Lidar is acronym (Light detection and rangingeither Laser imaging detection and ranging) with which we refer to an analogous technology to the radar but that makes use of the laser instead of the radio waves used by the veteran detection system. This technique has become a very useful tool for archeology since Allows you to explore precisely The relief hidden under vegetation, even when it is dense.

This implies that the equipment does not have to perform extensive cleaning of the land, with the consequent impact on local biodiversity. What is more, allows to obtain valuable information before setting a foot on the ground: thanks to the use of drones, the preliminary work can be done at a distance. As a counterpoint, this technology requires additional expert knowledge.

The hidden fortress. The site It would correspond to a settlement with various fortified areas and has been dated in the early bronze age, between the fourth and the third millennium before our era. That is, between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.

As explained by the Equio responsible for the study, the spatial disposition of the fortifications allows us to conclude that they had the function of protecting or controlling a “clearly defined” geographical territory. A territory rich in resources such as salt.

The study has not yet been the filter of the review by peer and subsequent publication in a magazine, but was presented at the Landscape Archaeology Conference held last year at the University of Alcalá. He abstract or summary can be consulted through the repository Researchgate.

The complexity of the environment. Lidar gives archeology a different perspective, an aerial vision of greater precision than that would allow more conventional “bird’s bird” prospects, based on simple optical instruments. This does not imply that all work is done: the land still hidden important information about who built this fortified environment and what their motives were.

“Even if some details related to the presence of defensive structures cannot be observed at the ground level, the detailed topographic image is absolutely necessary to understand the complexity of these fortifications in relation to the landscape that surrounds them,” explains the equipment in the abstractof the conference.

In Xataka | The use of Lidar has helped discover that in the ancient Teotihuacán it was built so beastly that it affected later buildings, according to a study

Image | Image by Lidar del Castillo Racochi, in Ukraine (without relation to the study). Panchuk Valentyn / Neamth district. Pixabay