A high-resolution LiDAR mapping expedition in the Gila National Forest has identified a previously unknown urban complex belonging to the Ancestral Puebloan culture. The digital survey stripped away dense vegetation to reveal a 'Great House' featuring over 200 rooms and four subterranean kivas arranged in a sophisticated solar-aligned grid that dates back to approximately 600 CE.
The mapping also identified a series of terraced agricultural plots and a complex water-catchment system that funneled seasonal rainfall into communal cisterns. This discovery significantly expands the known range of early Puebloan architecture and provides new insights into how these societies managed high-altitude desert environments centuries before the rise of Chaco Canyon.