But the new map shows conclusively that Caracol was a REALLY BIG CITY, whose inhabitants made massive modifications of the landscape, for economic purposes (agriculture and exchange) as well as ritual and political purposes. The mysterious Maya are a lot less mysterious now.

But I would assume that there nevertheless needs to be excavation of the newly mapped features to be able to say that that they are in fact contempo.

The new map is nothing short of breathtaking, and it makes archaeologists like me incredibly jealous. This is really a major breakthrough in archaeological mapping.

And do I understand correctly that 3D scanning is the next step?

But more than that, it has the potential to mark a breakthrough in scholarly and popular understandings of Maya cities. There is still a lot of baloney about the Maya, both in the popular media and among professionals. Mysterious jungle dwellers, obsessed with ritual, etc. But the new map shows conclusively that Caracol was a REALLY BIG CITY, whose inhabitants made massive modifications of the landscape, for economic purposes (agriculture and exchange) as well as ritual and political purposes. The mysterious Maya are a lot less mysterious now.

Very astute observation, and one I’m surprised more aren’t making. More than that, this should trigger the memory of the disciplines role in the race concept, and all the wars that it helped to develop in the 20th century. As anthropologist, we have to be especially sensitive about sanctioning ethnicity taught at race and nationalism, which from the complaints, it was.

Substituting the work ethnic for the word race, is meaningless when the outcome is the same, and when so many high school students already think of things in racial terms. We should be in the business of problematizing ethnicity, not promoting it. As Howard Zinn taught us in the People’s History of the United States, most people of every ethnic back ground have not been taught their history. Kids aren’t taught European history, they are taught the history of states and elites.