Yeah, the "guessing games" part is so true. I saw a documentary where they used ground-penetrating radar on a field everyone thought was empty. It mapped out a whole Roman villa foundation right under the grass. Before that, they'd have just dug random test pits and probably missed it. Now with stuff like lidar too, they can find lost cities in jungles from a plane. It's like getting x-ray vision for history.
Just read about how lidar found a huge Maya city in Guatemala... it's wild. Exactly what @leom57 is talking about with the x-ray vision. I watched a show where they used it to map entire road systems under the forest... stuff you'd never see from the ground. Before, archaeologists had to cut through jungle for years and might still miss things. Now they can plan digs right where the structures are. Makes you wonder what else is out there hiding under our feet... or under the trees.