Uncovering the secrets of an ancient Mayan city

[Judi Lynn]

28 September 2021
/Deborah Devis

New discovery further reveals the connections between the Mesoamerican cities of Teotihuacan and Tikal.



A recent lidar analysis revealed that an area once assumed to be natural hills (centre) near Tikal's Lost World complex (right) is actually an 1,800-year-old ruined citadel. Credit: Thomas Garrison/PACUNAM


Archaeologists and researchers decoding the secrets of one of the most magnificent ruins of the Mayan empire – the ancient city of Tikal – have made a ground-breaking discovery that potentially rewrites our understanding of interactions in the ancient Americas.

Tikal, in the north of modern-day Guatemala, has been extensively studied since at least the 1950s. The sprawling city – which itself covers 400 hectares – is the crowning jewel of 570 square-kilometre Tikal National Park, a lush region of tropical forests and wetlands that sequesters potentially thousands of archaeological ruins within its borders.

A major political and cultural centre for the ancient Maya, Tikal is one of the best understood and most deeply studied archaeological sites in the world. So it came as a surprise when researchers engaged in the Pacunam Lidar Initiaive, a research consortium using light detection and ranging software (lidar) to image the surface of the Earth, made a startling new discovery about the city.

Just a short walk from the centre of Tikal, in an area previously thought to be natural hills, the team discovered a neighbourhood of ruined buildings built in the style of Teotihuacan, the largest and most powerful city in the ancient Americas, more than 1000km away in modern-day Mexico.

More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/civilisations/uncovering-the-secrets-of-an-ancient-mayan-city/