Scientists discover ancient Mayan city hidden under Guatemalan jungle
Aerial laser mapping detects thousands of hidden structures in Peten region, suggesting its population was millions more than previously thought.
Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defence works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala’s Peten region, suggesting that millions more people lived there than previously thought.
The discoveries, which included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, were announced on Thursday by an alliance of US, European and Guatemalan archaeologists working with Guatemala’s Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation.
The study estimates that roughly 10 million people may have lived within the Maya Lowlands, meaning that kind of massive food production might have been needed.
“That is two to three times more [inhabitants] than people were saying there were,” said Marcello A Canuto, a professor of anthropology at Tulane University.
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La technologie révolutionnaire du lidar a permis de mettre au jour le complexe cérémoniel d’Aguada Fenix, qui remonterait à 1 000 avant Jésus-Christ.
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https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Maya