Modern equipment like LiDAR can be pretty cool. It has been used in archaeology, but it is prohibitively expensive. Most of us archaeologists aren't exactly rolling in dough, and it's terribly hard to get a grant for something that might turn up something, when plenty of things remain unstudied above ground.

Google Earth and other satellite imagery are becoming increasingly used tools in the field. The problem with public satellite imagery like Google Earth is that the resolution is sometimes inadequate for the needs of the researcher. One can easily spot large palaces or pyramids, but it is much more difficult to spot remnants of households or minor agricultural works.

What is being used more and more is photogrammetry due to the low cost of high resolution cameras and drones. One can easily program in a flight path for the drone, have it snap pictures and certain intervals, and then use these images to "stitch" together a model. It is surprisingly accurate with some resolutions being within the centimeter depending on the camera you use and the number of clear photographs. Between the accuracy and the cost, the vice minister of the Ministry of Culture of Peru was advocating during his presentation at the annual meeting for the Society of American Archaeology to make photogrammetry of sites the norm for all future archaeological projects in Peru.