LiDAR Reveals Medieval Fortress in Spain, Rewriting History

An ancient 25-acre (10-hectare) fortified settlement found on a hilltop in Galicia was long ago identified as an Iron Age village, meaning it was dated to the period between 1,500 and 500 BC. But a new study published by a pair of Spanish archaeologists from the University of Santiago de Compostela, shows that the Spanish settlement named Castro Valente dates not to the Iron Age but to the early medieval period, most likely to the fifth through seventh centuries AD. This would make it over 1,000 years younger than previously thought.

LiDAR Technology Reveals Medieval Fortress

It is rare for archaeologists to blunder so badly when dating ancient structures and monuments. But in this case a huge mistake was made, and it has taken more than a century to finally set the record straight about the true identity of Castro Valente, a sprawling installation built on the apex of a 1,300-foot (400-meter)-high hill overlooking the municipalities of Padrón and A Estrada.

The tool that helped the Spanish archaeologists, Mario Fernández-Pereiro and José Carlos Sánchez-Pardo, finally correct the historical record is known as LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. From an aerial platform, the LiDAR system beams lasers at the ground and then creates accurate three-dimensional images of archaeological sites from the contour data that is reflected back.

LiDAR is extraordinarily useful for mapping areas that are covered by dense forest (like the Castro Valente site), since the reflecting laser…

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