An ancient Maya city discovered hidden beneath Mexico’s jungle

The M-REDD+ Alliance project, led by The Nature Conservancy, collected high-quality lidar data, with the goal of measuring and reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Mexico. 122 square km Luke Auld-Thomas of Northern Arizona University, in collaboration with researchers from Tulane University, the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico, and the university’s National Airborne Laser Mapping Center, decided to conduct the study from an archaeological perspective. Houston.

They discovered a dense and diverse series of previously unknown Maya settlements spread across the region, including an entire city from the Classic period (250–900 AD), when the Mayas transformed the rugged interior of the Mexican state of Campeche Was densely populated and extensively landscaped.

“Lidar data reveal a range of the density of ancient settlements documented by archaeological studies focused on the region, ranging from nearly empty rural landscapes to dense urban areas,” the researchers said in the study published in the journal Antiquity.

These findings may resolve the heated archaeological debate that has raged since the emergence of lidar.

“Our analysis revealed not only a picture of an area that was full of settlements, but also a lot of variability,” says Auld-Thomas, lead author of the study. “We don’t just get rural areas and small settlements. “We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the only road in the area, near a city where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years,” the researchers say.

Neither the government nor the scientific community was aware of its existence. “It actually puts an exclamation point behind this claim No, we haven’t found everything, and yes, there’s more to discover», says Auld-Thomas.

lessons for the future

Future research will focus on fieldwork at new sites discovered remotely. They can be helpful in solving modern problems faced by urban development.

“The ancient world is full of examples of Cities that are completely different from the cities we have today», Auld-Thomas concluded. «There were cities that were extensive and highly concentrated agricultural mosaics; There were cities that were extremely egalitarian and extremely unequal.

“Given the environmental and social challenges we face due to rapid population growth, studying ancient cities and expanding our view of what urban life might have been like can only help,” the anthropologist believes. , he believes that having a comprehensive historical record can “get us”. freedom to do Imagine better, more sustainable ways of being urban now and in the future,