Overlooking the developments, on a ridge line near the park’s famous rock, the team demonstrated a light-detection and ranging system called LiDAR. The laser scanner can send out 122,000 pulses per second, enough to collect a data point every 3 millimeters.

It is detailed enough to capture dust, insects and rain, he said.

The team will filter out unneeded information, including vegetation, to create a 3-D color model of about 1.5 square miles of the area that will reveal details about the site that would otherwise go unnoticed, he said.

“We’re using LiDAR because it is a way to see what you can’t see with your eyes,” said Tessa Branyan, a graduate student in anthropology.

For example, the modeling has uncovered details that have been missed even though the site has been surveyed many times.

“We actually located a path into one of the sectors of the site that hadn’t been reported,” he said.

–The Durango Herald, By Mary Shinn City & health reporter, Wednesday, May 18, 2016

In May of 2016 CU anthropologists/archaeologists and team used a Riegl 3D scanner and LiDAR technology to conduct mapping of the ridges at Chimney Rock National Monument, an archaeological site located at the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans. Excavated structures include a Great Kiva, a Pit House, a Multi-Family Dwelling, and a Chacoan-style Great House Pueblo.

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Photogrammetry