A Lexington archaeologist has received a grant from the National Geographic Society to advance his search for a "lost city" in Honduras.
Christopher Begley, an associate professor of anthropology at Transylvania University and director of the Exploration Foundation, will use the National Geographic/Waitt Foundation research grant and 3-D technology to examine ancient artifacts in the Honduran rainforest, near the Mosquito Coast. The area is the rumored location of a Lost White City from ancient times.
Administered by National Geographic Mission Programs, the NGS/Waitt program provides grants between $5,000 and $15,000 for exploratory research.
Begley and a team including photographer and documentary filmmaker Josh Howard and University of Kentucky engineering professor Larry Hassebrook will leave for Honduras next week to begin filming a documentary titled The Lost City of the Mosquito Coast: A Modern Struggle for the Past.
"What's interesting is what it says about the present," Begley said of the lost-city legends. "This is so pervasive and keeps existing as a legend."
In addition to making discoveries about the past, Begley and his team will implement a new 3-D technology that can be used by archaeologists and experts in other fields.
Hassebrook, an active member of the Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments at UK, has been working on a structured-light illumination 3-D scanner that allows scientists to collect 3-D data in remote areas.
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