Satellite may help explore ancient Mexico

ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. archeologist plans to use National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite imagery to study ancient Mexico.

Professor Bill Middleton of the Rochester Institute of Technology said he plans to use multi- and hyperspectral data to build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map extant of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

"If you ask someone off the street about Mexican archeology, they'll say Aztec, Maya. Sometimes they'll also say Inca, which is the wrong continent, but you'll almost never hear anyone talk about the Zapotecs," said Middleton. "They had the first writing system, the first state society, the first cities. And they controlled a fairly large territory at their zenith (250 B.C. to A.D. 750)."

Satellite imagery covering more than 11,583 square miles from the Earth Observing 1 and Landsat satellites obtained over three years will help Middleton and colleagues David Messinger, Justin Kwon and John Kerekes identify the natural resources found at archeological sites.

The new landscape map will also show how development has changed the region since the first survey was conducted 30 years ago.