Researchers discovered a large Maya site while surveying northern Guatemala
from the air.
A vast Maya site measuring roughly 650 square miles (1,700 square
kilometers) and dating to the Middle and Late Preclassic era has been found
by geologists in northern Guatemala. (roughly 1000 B.C. to 250 B.C.).
The results came from an aerial study that researchers carried out from an
aircraft using lidar (light detection and ranging), a technique that uses
lasers to beamed out into the terrain and the reflected light to produce
aerial images. Since lasers can pass through dense tree canopies, the
technology is especially useful in places like the jungles of Guatemala's
Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin.
The team discovered more than 1,000 villages scattered throughout the area
using information from the images. These settlements were linked by 100
miles (160 kilometers) of causeways, which the Maya most likely traveled on
foot. The research, which was released on December 5 in the journal
Ancient Mesoamerica, also found evidence of a number of huge platforms and pyramids, as well
as waterways and water gathering reservoirs.
The lidar data revealed "for the first time an area that was integrated
politically and economically, and never seen before in other places in the
Western Hemisphere," study co-author
Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography and the Environment
at the University of Texas at Austin, told Live Science in an email. Here in
this part of Guatemala, "we can now see the entire landscape of the Maya
region," he said.
So what was it about this area that attracted the Maya to reside there in
the first place?
According to research co-author
Ross Ensley, a scientist with the Institute for Geological research of the Maya
Lowlands in Houston, the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin was the "Goldilocks
Zone" for the Maya. "The Maya inhabited this area because it contained the
ideal proportion of uplands for habitation and plains for cultivation. Their
main supply of building material, limestone, could be found in the uplands,
along with dry ground for habitation. The lowlands are primarily composed of
seasonal marshes, or bajos, which offered room for wetlands cultivation and
organically rich soil for terraced farming.
Lidar has previously been used by researchers to survey Maya ruins in
Guatemala. Two substantial studies of the southern part of the basin,
concentrating on the historic settlement of El Mirador, were carried out in
2015 by a project known as the
Mirador Basin Project. According to the research, that effort resulted in the mapping of 658
square miles (1,703 square km) of this region of the country.
Morales-Aguilar remarked, "I was blown away when I produced the first
bare-earth models of the ancient settlement of El Mirador. The large number
of lakes, enormous pyramids, slopes, living areas, and tiny mounds were
intriguing to see for the first time.
Researchers are hoping that laser technology will enable them to
investigate parts of Guatemala that have been uncharted for many
years.
The Middle American Research Institute director at Tulane University and
anthropologist
Marcello Canuto told Live Science that lidar has been "revolutionary" for archaeology
in this region, particularly if it's covered in tropical forest where
visibility is constrained. "When measuring, we typically only see a tiny
portion of the bridge, but lidar enables us to see large, linear objects. We
can now see the area for the first time thanks to this study; having this
info is revolutionary.
