Archaeologists have found thousands of Maya structures and a lost city they named Valeriana in Mexico by using laser mapping technology, according to a new study.
For more than 1,000 years, dense forests in the Mexican state of Campeche concealed the region’s ancient human history. Scientists called Campeche an archaeological “blank spot” in the Maya Lowlands, an area spanning what is now Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and southeastern Mexico, and which the Maya inhabited from about 1000 BC to AD 1500. But part of that region is blank no longer.
But this new study and other LiDAR-driven investigations are changing that. “This is a new dawn for all of us, because we can now see where we would never have been able to see,” Canuto said. The new LiDAR scans also highlight the connections between Maya settlements and hint at the complexity of Maya cities regardless of their size, said Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a landscape archaeologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the research.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
PhD student discovers lost Maya city with pyramids in Campeche, Mexico jungleOver 6,500 previously unknown Maya structures, including an entire city with towering pyramids, were revealed in southeast Mexico.
Read more »
Lost Maya City, Including Pyramids, Discovered in Mexico’s JungleLidar technology has revealed extensive Maya infrastructure across Campeche, located in Mexico's Yucatán.
Read more »
Archaeologists Discover Lost City in the Amazon RainforestScience and Technology News and Videos
Read more »
Archaeologists Uncovered a Community Lost to Time for 5,000 YearsThis changes everything we knew about African “prehistory.”
Read more »
Lasers reveal Maya city, including thousands of structures, hidden in MexicoSierra Bouchér is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist whose work has been featured in Science, Scientific American, Mongabay and more. They have a master's degree in science communication from U.C. Santa Cruz, and a research background in animal behavior and historical ecology.
Read more »
The New ‘Getting LOST’ Trailer Focuses on the Survivors of ‘LOST’The cast of Lost Season 4
Read more »