Scientists have found 417 historic Mayan cities in a densely forested space, with a historical past relationship again to round 1000 B.C. in Guatemala.
Researchers from a joint U.S.– Guatemala archaeological expedition revealed in an interview with The Washington Submit that they’d uncovered 417 cities related by a community of “highways” spanning 177 kilometers (109.9 miles), relationship again roughly 3,000 years.
This discovery challenges historians to rethink what they know concerning the historic Maya civilization.
In keeping with The Washington Submit, the invention of a street and metropolis community, hydraulic methods, and agricultural infrastructure signifies that the communities dwelling in Central America had been extra superior than beforehand thought.
Groundbreaking radar expertise was used to unveil and map the buildings hid below dense forest cowl for 1000’s of years. The findings have the potential to reshape what is thought concerning the historical past of the American continent.
In keeping with the doc, these findings replicate “socioeconomic group and political energy.”
Since 2015, the workforce has been mapping the area in Central America with scientists from the U.S. and Guatemala, utilizing lidar expertise—a major method in archaeological laser mapping—to disclose even the smallest particulars comparable to historic vegetation.
In keeping with the analysis, this expertise enabled scientists to see historic dams, reservoirs, pyramids, platforms, street networks and even ball courts.
Enrique Hernandez, an archaeologist at San Carlos College in Guatemala Metropolis and co-author of the article, said to The Washington Submit that additional work on the venture might make a historic discovery as vital because the Egyptian pyramids.