(Who, by the way, are not extinct. I've met some).
Turns out there were a lot more of them than we thought. A LIDAR survey of Guatemala showed more than 60,000 hidden ruins, making a human-controlled landscape home to millions. It might indicate that Mayan civilization was akin to, well, Greece. Or China. The new estimation for the Mayan population - 15 million (before it was five million).
Most of the hidden ruins are fairly small stone platforms. That is to say: Houses. But they also found walls and fortresses, a seven storey pyramid (seriously) and raised highways that would have allowed trade to continue even during the rains.
But really. A seven storey pyramid...
IOW, lidar is awesome.
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