Image source, Wild Blue Media/Channel 4
The Mayan city of Tikal turned out to be just a fraction of a huge hidden metropolis
Researchers have discovered more than 60,000 hidden Mayan ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough.
Laser technology was used to carry out a digital survey beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways and defensive fortifications.
The landscape, near already known Mayan cities, is thought to have been home to millions more people than other research had previously suggested.
Researchers have mapped more than 810 square miles (2,100 km²) in northern Peten.
Archaeologists believe that advanced technology will change the way the world views the Mayan civilization.
“I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of archeology and anthropology at Brown University.
Mr Houston told the BBC that after decades of working in the archaeological field he found the scale of the recent study “breathtaking”. He added: “I know it sounds hyperbolic, but when I saw the (Lidar) images, it brought tears to my eyes.”
Image source, Wild Blue Media/Channel 4
Most of the structures are believed to be stone platforms intended for houses built on poles and thatch.
Research findings using Lidar technology, which is short for “light detection and ranging,” suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilization more akin to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China.
“Everything is turned upside down,” Thomas Garrison, an archaeologist at Ithaca College, told the BBC.
He estimates that the size and density of the population has been “vastly underestimated and may in fact be three or four times greater than previously thought.”
How does Lidar work?
Described as “magical” by some archaeologists, Lidar reveals archaeological finds that are almost invisible to the naked eye, particularly in the tropics.
- It is a sophisticated remote sensing technology that uses laser light to densely sample the Earth’s surface.
- Millions of laser pulses every four seconds are sent to the ground from a plane or helicopter.
- The wavelengths are measured as they bounce around, not unlike the way bats use sonar to hunt.
- The highly precise measurements are then used to produce a detailed three-dimensional image of the ground surface topography.
Revolutionary Treasure Map
The group of researchers who worked on this project used Lidar to digitally remove the dense tree canopy to create a 3D map of what actually lies beneath the surface of the now-uninhabited Guatemalan rainforest.
“Lidar is revolutionizing archeology “We’ll need 100 years to go through all (the data) and really understand what we’re seeing.”
Image source, Wild Blue Media/Channel 4
Lidar images surprised surveyors
Archaeologists excavating a Mayan site called El Zotz in northern Guatemala have painstakingly mapped the landscape for years. But the Lidar survey revealed miles of fortification walls the team had never noticed before.
“Maybe one day we would have gotten to the top of that hill where that fortress is, but I was about 150 feet from it in 2010 and I didn’t see anything,” Mr. Garrison said at Live Science.
Although Lidar imaging has saved archaeologists years of field research, the BBC has learned it also presents a problem.
“The problem with Lidar is that it gives us a compressed image of 3,000 years of Mayan civilization in the region,” said Garrison, who is part of a consortium of archaeologists involved in the recent survey.
“This is a big deal, because it poses new challenges for us as we learn more about the Mayans.”
In recent years, Lidar technology has also been used to reveal previously hidden cities near the iconic ancient temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Hidden information
The Mayan civilization, at its peak around 1,500 years ago, covered an area roughly twice the size of medieval England, with an estimated population of around five million.
“With this new data, it is no longer unreasonable to think that there were between 10 and 15 million people there,” Mr. Estrada-Belli said, “many of whom lived in low-lying, swampy areas that many ‘among us thought uninhabitable’.
Most of the 60,000 newly identified structures are thought to be stone platforms that would have supported an average Mayan house made of poles and thatch.
Archaeologists were struck by the “incredible defensive features”, which included walls, fortresses and moats.
They showed that the Mayans invested more resources in their defense than previously thought, Mr. Garrison said.
One of the hidden finds is a seven-story pyramid so overgrown with vegetation that it practically blends into the jungle.
Another discovery that surprised archaeologists is the complex network of causeways connecting all the Mayan cities in the region. The elevated highways, allowing easy passage even during the rainy season, were wide enough to suggest that they were heavily traveled and used for commercial purposes.
“The idea of seeing a continuous landscape, but understanding that everything is connected across many square miles is incredible,” Mr. Houston said.
“We can expect many more surprises,” he added.
The Lidar survey was the first part of a three-year project led by a Guatemalan organization that promotes the preservation of cultural heritage. Ultimately, it will make it possible to map more than 14,000 km² of the lowlands of Guatemala.
The project’s findings will be featured in a Channel 4 program called Lost Cities of the Maya: Revealed, broadcast in the UK on Sunday February 11 at 8:00 p.m. GMT.
Image source, Wild Blue Media/Channel 4
Some sites were not visible under the jungle foliage
Image source, Wild Blue Media/Channel 4
But Lidar technology has revealed an unknown seven-story pyramid
