3-D map of Guatemala's 'Head of stone' confirms size, location of ancient buildings

[Judi Lynn]

3-D map of Guatemala's 'Head of stone' confirms size, location of ancient buildings
April 13, 2011
By Margaret Allen

Archaeologists have made the first three-dimensional topographical map of ancient monumental buildings long buried under centuries of jungle at the Maya site "Head of Stone" in Guatemala.

The map puts into 3-D perspective the location and size of Head of Stone's many buildings and architectural patterns, which are typical of Maya sites: 70-foot-tall "triadic pyramid," an astronomical observatory, a ritual ball court, numerous plazas and also residential mounds that would have been the homes of elites and commoners, according to archaeologist Brigitte Kovacevich, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The map situates the primary buildings relative to one another and also places them within the context of the site's hills and valleys in the Central Lakes agricultural region of north-central Guatemala.

The buildings date from 800 B.C. to 900 A.D., says Kovacevich, an expert in Meso-American cultures and co-leader of an international scientific team that has been granted permission by the Guatemalan government to work the site, which has never before been excavated.

More:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-d-guatemala-stone-size-ancient.html