Researchers have used laser technology to probe the ancient Maya area. The data maps an area with more than 1000 settlements.
Chilar – Researchers from universities in Texas have used so-called LiDAR technology, i.e. laser-based imaging, to identify a historical area of the Maya in the north of Guatemala researched. In a studypublished in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, the research team shows how they were able to unlock some of the settlement history of the indigenous people – more than was ever known before.
Researchers discover 1000 Maya settlements on over 1700 square kilometers
According to this, the scientists analyzed and mapped the densely forested area of the so-called Mirador Calakmul karst basin using light detection and distance measuring technology. It turned out that the research team had discovered more than 1,000 Maya settlements on an area of almost 1,700 square kilometers, all of which were connected by a dam that was around 180 kilometers long. With this size, the settlements are almost twice as big as Berlin.
The Mayas would have traveled their settlements and cities on this causeway. Canals and reservoirs are also among the discoveries of the Maya settlements in northern Guatemala. The buildings date back to around 1000 BC. to AD 150. The discovery is remarkable. Only last researchers had even discovered a “forgotten continent”..
Researchers discover Maya settlement structures in northern Guatemala
Carlos Morales-Aguilar, of the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the study, tells Live Science that this analysis is a first look at “an area that was politically and economically integrated and never before seen elsewhere in the western hemisphere”. According to the study, the discovery of the settlement structure forms a “network of social, political and economic interactions involved”.
The authors explain that the area provided an ideal living condition for the Maya, while also offering lowland agriculture. “Settlement distributions, architectural continuities, chronological simultaneity, and volumetric considerations of sites provide evidence of early centralized administrative and socioeconomic strategies within a defined geographic region,” the study states.
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