Large studies have been done on the major archaeological sites of the Petén area including Tikal (Haviland 1967, Webster 2018) and the Triangulo Natural Reserve - Yaxhá, Nakum and Naranjo - (Gordillo-Barillas 2008, Wurster 2000, Źrałka et al. 2012).
More specifically, the area around Lake Yaxhá was first visited by researchers at the end of the 19th century (Karl Sapper) or beginning of the 20th century, when Teoberto Maler reported the existence of the ruins around the 1910s. Yaxhá was then mapped in the 1930s by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and remapped during the 1970s due to structural damage on the site which made it necessary to start a preservation plan (Sharer and Traxler 2006). The surrounding sites got less attention and not many maps were produced from those areas. However, thanks to the work done by Quintana and Wurster 2001 and continued by Quintana in 2008, it is possible to see schematic drawings of the core of most of these Maya sites.
Regarding the reports and documentation, most of the archaeological papers from the closest area to the Lake are published in the online repository of “Simposio de Investigaciones
Arqueológicas de Guatemala”, which is openly available online until the reports of 2016. Some of the sites have been studied in more depth (e.g. La Blanca: Muñoz-Cosme and Vidal-Lorenzo 2005, 2006; Vidal-Lorenzo and Muñoz-Cosme 2007) while others have been scarcely recorded (e.g. San Clemente and Corozal: Morales 2005 or even more strongly Tzikintzakan: Fialko 2013). The panorama is luckily slowly improving thanks to the interest taken in recent years by a series of researchers working at US universities: e.g. Vanderbilt University project at TzikinTzakan or the University of Florida Holtún project.
Nevertheless, this still unequal study of the sites plays in favour of our research as it will be possible to test how powerful LiDAR can be to increase information over under-studied sites compared to areas where archaeological research has been a regular activity over the years.
