Bolivian Amazon News

LiDAR sure grabs everyone's attention.  The Monumental Mounds article in Nature by Prumers, et.al. has been widely reported , so the LiDAR image of Loma Cotoca keeps reappearing on social media feeds.

Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon
www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04780-4

My attention shifted to updating my bolivia.kml so I'm surfing around and checking where Google recently added hi-res or newer images, surveying some of those areas, and finding lots more earthworks and a few surprises and questions.  With over 1,400 new placemark already for this update, I'm nearing adequate coverage to convey the archaeology we can see from space at this time.  A lot of crop marks are newly visible along the Rio Itonomas (San Pablo) in far east and southeast Beni and across the river in Santa Cruz.  Note the area around Puente San Pablo, - 15.2442,-63.8667.  See also areas upstream, up to -15.0126, -63.9687.  Along this river the lines are culturally distinct.  How old do they seem to you?

I'll reply to this thread when the update goes online.  Current version is 3,400 placemarks, 1.2 MB: jqjacobs.net/amazon/bolivia.kml.

Have you ever seen a canoe roundabout?  That's my best guess for why there is a 100 meter canal circle amdist a vast agricultural earthwork complex.

Updating continues, lots to do with so many areas updated by Google Earth, and lots to see and record, of course.  Now over 5,000 placemarks, a 50% increase already.

The "Rotunda da Canoa" earthworks area stands out for the intensive agricultural evidence, raised fields, canals, drainage, causeways, all quite visible in the 2019 satellite imagery.  

• Unable to upload file rdcan.kml.
  Error: This forum has exceeded its attachment space limit. Your file cannot be uploaded.

Rotunda da Canoa
-14.908872
-65.913508

What do you think?  Is this a place to turn your canoe around after a day of hard work in the raised fields?

I added solid backgrounds and topo overlays, and the combination really illustrates where the causeway/canals are situated:

www.jqjacobs.net/amazon/images/lomas_topography.png

Obviously Boulevards and Avenues! Fascinating!

Much thanks James for the exciting update!

Immediately I report upload error for our magicians on board! ( ;

Keep up the good work! 

G

There are too few photographs available in this remote region.  I did find one good one of an old causeway, albeit much trampled by cattle.  Some have tree rows on them, some are used as roads today, of pature fence lines.  It is obvious why the show up so well still.

lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMImJAQvK5HlRzsamiVMkIqv19EpBf6l9Zr7znT=h1440

Of course, the areas with raised fields have a different configuration, a maze of causeways and canals with lots of raised gardening beds instead of a straight line across an area which floods for half the year.

Almost finished, file size has doubled, found far more than expected and more than expected higher resolution imagery. Will be online after more reviewing for bugs. Now 6,000 placemarks, 2.5 MB.


And I decided to compare other providers in areas of greatest interest. Check it out, in Google Earth a green pasture with little visible detail, in satellites.pro a fire is burning in the area, and in zoom.earth the revealed archaeology was a real surprise. zoom.earth/#view=-15.527625,-65.692857,18z. I assume fire cleared all the vegetation. I made a 2560 pixel jpg deskpicture.


Anyone know the terms for using zoom.earth images? Are they shareable?

Check out an area I had placemarked years ago in Google Earth which has updated, far better resolution today. The raised fields even look 3D: -14.8256, -66.7112.

JQ

P.S.  I mistakenly posted this in the geoglyphs thread first.  Oh well.

Now online, current version is 6,000 plus placemarks, 2.4 MB: www.jqjacobs.net/amazon/bolivia.kml

Several more high resolution areas surveyed, file updated.  Current version is 2.67 MB, 7,000 placemarks.

CooL!

Jun 27, 2022 6:12:21 GMT archaeo said:

Several more high resolution areas surveyed, file updated.  Current version is 2.67 MB, 7,000 placemarks.



I can't do anything with the links you provided  

Edit: I managed to open it, somehow lol

So, have you seen the Rotunda da Canoa at -14.908872, -65.913508 and the surrounding fields?

Not all systems treat KML files the same.  I'm on a pair of iMacs each with Google Earth Pro (GE) and both set up to automatically open any KML in GE.  I know some PC users have to download the file to their system first and then open them from the GE command menu.  How each person's devices handle different file types is often a device specific preference setting.  KML (Keystone Markup Language, an XML language/application) files are just simple text files saved with UTF-8 encoding and a .kml suffix instead of .txt. 

I developed an XML class before Google Earth existed.  Follow that link to some of my class readings.  At the time, we had to develop a lot of new computer classes as web languages became ever more important.  All my students my first year teaching web authoring were Ph.D. professors and I did only one-on-one tutoring so they could develop web content for their students.  The next year I began doing the same for another college and started teaching regular classes too as the colleges began offering web authoring classes.

Great NOVA premiere 2023.02.15:

Ancient Builders of the Amazon
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/ancient-builders-of-the-amazon/

More: Prümers et.al., www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022