Aerial mapping and remote sensing takes another step forward with this method of modelling lidar data. The usual form of presentation, hill shade, uses a point source to show up surface features. Sky-view factor simulates diffuse light by computing how much of the sky is visible from each point. The result is a greatly improved visibility — as shown here by its use on a test site of known topography in Slovenia.

The authors comment on the date of the formation of the Tüttensee, holding that it was not created by a meteorite in the first millennium BC as claimed in the Antiquity article, but formed at the end of the Ice Age and can have nothing to do with Phaethon and his chariot. In reply, Rappenglück et al. offer a brief defence of their thesis.

We acknowledge the observations of Doppler et al. on our paper and we are grateful to Antiquity's editor for this opportunity to reply to their objections.

Firstly, it should be noted that we have not claimed that the Chiemsee once included the Tüttensee. We agree that the region in which both lakes lie was glacially formed. But while Lake Chiemsee is the result of the last Ice Age the Tüttensee basin originates from a much later Holocene meteorite impact. We do not use the myth of Phaeton to date this event that is known as the Chiemgau impact. On the contrary we estimate from archaeological evidence and OSL dating that the event occurred between 2200 and 800 BC, i.e. the Bronze Age (Rappenglück et al. 2010: 436).We go on to discuss parallels between the independent dating of the Chiemgau impact and the possible time frame of the myth (Rappenglück et al. 2010: 435–37).

Fiery pool: the Maya and the mythic sea is a travelling exhibition of nearly 100 finds that, together, imply a specific concept of the environment, physical and spiritual, for the Maya of Mesoamerica. As usual, the majority are from ‘public’ contexts, more or less aristocratic; but the exhibition generalises about Maya culture. Most of the exhibits are of the Classic period (c. AD 250–900), predominantly Late Classic, but there are some earlier pieces and several of the Postclassic (to the Spanish Conquest). Some are well known and there are striking new finds too. Curated by Daniel Finamore & Stephen Houston, Fiery pool draws from more than 40 collections in the USA, Mexico, Central America and further afield. It was shown at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, in 2010, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, in 2010–11. It is now in Missouri, at the St Louis Art Museum, where its tour finishes on 8 May 2011.

We acknowledge the observations of Doppler et al. on our paper and we are grateful to Antiquity s editor for this opportunity to reply to their objections. Firstly it should be noted that we have not claimed that the Chiemsee once included the Tuttensee. We agree that the region in which both lakes lie was glacially formed. But while Lake Chiemsee is the result of the last Ice Age, the Tuttensee basin originates from a much later Holocene meteorite impact. We do not use the myth of Phaeton to date this event that is known as the Chiemgau impact. On the contrary, we estimate from archaeological evidence and OSL dating that the event occurred between 2200 and 800 BC i.e. the Bronze Age (Rappengluck et al. 2010: 436).We go on to discuss parallels between the independent dating of the Chiemgau impact and the possible time frame of the myth (Rappengluck et al. 2010: 435–37).