Uncovered in Mexico's Jungle: Hidden Maya City with Its Pyramids
Uncovered in Mexico's Jungle: Hidden Maya City with Its Pyramids
Archaeologists utilizing an old chart of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula have lately unearthed a vanished Mayan city, hidden up until now, with countless structures tightly packed into a small space.
The archaeological squad employed a lidar scan (short for "light detection and ranging", a standard tool in modern archaeological investigations) to detect around 7,000 uncharted constructions, including pyramids similar to those discovered elsewhere in Central America. The team's study, detailing these findings, was released today in Antiquity.
Lidar scans are invaluable in Mesoamerican archaeology, where vast expanses of jungle can swiftly engulf whole cities. Three years prior, a separate team conducted a lidar scan on 30,000 square miles (78,000 square kilometers) of Mexico, recognizing around 500 historic sites and finding that similar urban designs were utilized for cities throughout the area.
Lidar scans can even alter archaeologists' perceptions of thoroughly researched sites; in 2021, a lidar scan of Tikal, in Guatemala, revealed an uncharted neighborhood complex on the extensive site.
A lidar image of unknown Mayan structures in Mexico. Image: Auld-Thomas et al., Antiquity 2024
However, lidar is pricey. That's where an old map comes in handy—a 2013 lidar scan of the area, to be exact, commissioned by a group monitoring carbon reserves in Mexico's forests. The recent archaeological team gained access to that data, preventing an expensive new scan of the region. The team analyzed the 2013 map for indications of undiscovered Mayan settlements in Campeche, and uncovered far more than they anticipated: 6,674 uncharted structures.
"Our research not only depicted a region brimming with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of diversity," said Luke Auld-Thomas, an archaeologist at Northern Arizona University and the study's primary author, in an Antiquity press release. "We didn't simply discover rural areas and smaller settlements. We also uncovered a substantial city with pyramids close to the region's only highway, nearby a town where individuals have been farming among the ruins for years."
The data only covered an area of roughly 50 square miles (129 square kilometers), but it was jam-packed with ancient architecture. The researchers also succeeded in identifying specific structures in the lidar that comprised the Mayan city, including a ballcourt and a dam. One architectural arrangement at one of the sites suggested a founding date prior to 150 CE, according to a previous study. That slightly precedes the Classic era of the Maya, which encompassed the years 250 CE to 900 CE.
"The government had no idea about it; the scientific community had no idea about it," Auld-Thomas said. "That truly underscores the statement that, no, we haven't found everything, and yes, there's a lot more to be discovered."
In the study, the team pointed out that the recent data supported previous concerns that "archaeologically-motivated lidar surveys have inflated estimates of regional settlement density."
"To the contrary, random surveys—those combining practical and random sampling—like this one, have proven that anyone waiting for a sparsely populated Maya hinterland large enough to counterbalance the high settlement densities documented by archaeological lidar surveys is running out of places to look," the team added. In simpler terms: The dataset recently used by the team was not gathered with an archaeological purpose in mind, but it further confirmed previous notions about Mayan urban sites and their density.
While lidar scans are proficient at discovering sites and making assumptions about city layouts, the aerial method of archaeology cannot replace good old-fashioned fieldwork. According to the Antiquity press release, forthcoming research will focus on fieldwork at the sites. With nearly 7,000 structures in the area, that research could require some time.
The use of lidar scans in Mesoamerican archaeology has revealed unprecedented insights into the past, with recent scans revealing the existence of a substantial Mayan city hidden for centuries. In the future, advancements in technology and science could further uncover hidden civilizations and shed light on their societal structures.
The newfound Mayan city, filled with pyramids and structures, serves as a testament to the advanced architectural skills of the Mayan civilization during its Classic era, demonstrating the potential of what future discoveries in science and technology could unearth.