It looks as though the archaeologists have retired from the field and left it open to the anthropologists to destroy this young lad.
If anything they are more dangerous. At least archaeologists dig holes and do something useful. Anthropologists are more like social workers and their jargon is even more incomprehensible than that of management speak.
Where's Indian Jones when you need him?
Scientists from the Canadian Space Agency described William's work as "exceptional" and presented him with a medal of merit. The inspirational story went viral. But since then several experts have challenged the research's conclusions and the prominence given to them by the media.
"The whole thing is a mess - a terrible example of junk science hitting the internet in free-fall," wrote Dr David Stuart, an anthropologist and an authority on Mayan civilisation in a post on his Facebook page.
"The ancient Maya didn't plot their ancient cities according to constellations," he added. "Seeing such patterns is a rorschach process, since sites are everywhere, and so are stars. The square feature that was found on Google Earth is indeed man-made, but it's an old fallow cornfield, or milpa."
Another anthropologist, Thomas Garrison from the University of Southern California, also thinks it's corn field. He told Gizmodo that remote sensing needs to be backed up by boots on the ground, or "ground-truthing". He said "You have to be able to confirm what you are identifying in a satellite image or other type of scene.".
And another expert, Geoffrey Braswell from the University of San Diego, suggested that the boy may have, in fact, found a Marijuana field.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36276864I'd prefer the company or support of the Canadian Space Agency. They should know what they can see. And they should know what they are talking about.
But to describe the finding as similar to a 'rorschach process' is more what these anthropologists are doing anyway. They look for 'ground truthing' but jump in without boots and don't even touch the ground. So it looks like the debate will be over whether it is an abandoned corn field or a marijuana field. Not because there is any evidence but because they can't believe it is a pyramid. It can't be because there are stars all over the place. The Maya, (one of the most astronomical and mathematical civilisations known), wouldn't do such a thing as build cities according to star patterns. Why? Because we say so.
Besides which 'you have to be able to confirm what you are identifying in a satellite image or other type of scene.'
Which is what the Canadian archaeologists intend to do but which the cornfield anhroes don't.
If the lad is proved correct I wonder how they will argue their way out of that one?