2,000-Year-Old Mayan Site Discovered Under Guatemala Rainforest. Indicates 'State-Level Kingdom', Say Scientists

Previous studies indicated that early Mesoamerican settlements were sparsely populated. The new findings of a 2,000-year-old Mayan site discovered under Guatemala rainforest contradict this theory.

Representative Photo | The archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Tikal National Park, Guatemala. The park is UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

New Delhi: An important 2,000-year-old Mayan site has been discovered by scientists hidden underneath a Guatemala rainforest in a development that can unveil new details about the ancient civilisation. The long-lost site includes a web of nearly 1,000 urban settlements interconnected by 160km (100 miles) of causeways over an area of about 1,700 square km (650 square miles), The Independent reported citing research published recently in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica.

Researchers used a method that is increasingly being used in recent studies on lost civilisations hidden in dense tropical rain forests, to unveil this site. The team includes researchers from Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala.

An aerial survey was done using Lidar technology in which laser light is bounced off surfaces to map them based on the time it takes the pulses to return to a receiver.

Lidar proved to be helpful in uncovering evidence of lost ancient settlements in the rainforests of Guatemala’s Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin by being able to penetrate through the region’s thick tree canopy.

“This study uses airborne Lidar data to demonstrate how complex societies organised their infrastructure to reflect their socio-economic organisation and political power,” scientists wrote in the study, as per The Independent.

Previous studies had indicated that early Mesoamerican settlements were likely sparsely populated, however, the new findings contradict this theory as the settlements appear to be densely packed.

The ancient Mayans also constructed large reservoir systems for water collection and rainwater management in the area, the Lidar survey revealed.

The findings in the surveyed region included hidden sites, huge platforms and pyramid constructions.

Scientists also mentioned that some settlements had ball courts which, as per Previous research, are believed to have been used by the Mayan people for playing native sports.

Some of the sites may have served as centres for politics, work, and recreation.

Many of the settlements point to a “political/social/geographical relationship” with other nearby settlements, the analysis suggests.

The relationships could have resulted in the consolidation of this region into “at least 417 ancient cities, towns, and villages with identifiable site boundaries”.

The ancient causeway networks, ballcourts, and reservoirs suggest that vast amounts of labour and resources were involved in the area, “amassed by a presumably centralised organisation and administration,” said scientists who suspect the formation of a “state-level kingdom” at an area which today would be considered “inhospitable for demographic and architectural expansion”, The Inddependent reported.