Using high-resolution LiDAR technology, researchers have mapped a sprawling urban network hidden beneath the vegetation of northern Ghana's Koma Land. The survey revealed over 400 previously unrecorded mounds and a series of concentric defensive ditches that once formed a major regional hub during the late first millennium CE. This civilization is famous for its unique terracotta figurines, but the scale of its urban planning was unknown until this aerial mapping project.
The LiDAR data shows that the city was organized around a central ritual plaza, with elaborate water-management channels designed to capture seasonal rainfall. Professor Kofi Mensah stated that the complexity of the earthworks suggests a highly centralized social structure capable of mobilizing large labor forces. These findings challenge the traditional view of early West African political systems by demonstrating the existence of large-scale permanent settlements in the savannah belt long before the rise of the trans-Saharan trade empires.