Major Mayan Archeological Discovery by Zipline

Front page of a Guatemalan Newspaper. Sunday February 4.

Archeologists have used laser technology mounted to small aircraft to scan the jungles of Northern Guatemala.  They looked for (and found) further evidence of Mayan civilization in the vicinity of Tikal - perhaps the grandest Mayan City of all.

Google shows me all things related to Guatemala because, "I have shown interest in Maya Civilization."

The following story was in the New York Times today: 

They were hidden there, all this time, under the cover of tree canopies in the jungles of northern Guatemala: tens of thousands of structures built by the Maya over a millennium ago. Not far from the sites tourists already know, like the towering temples of the ancient city of Tikal, laser technology has uncovered about 60,000 homes, palaces, tombs and even highways in the humid lowlands.  The findings suggested an ancient society of such density and interconnectedness that even the most experienced archaeologists were surprised.  “Everywhere that we looked, there was more settlement than we expected,” said Thomas Garrison, a National Geographic explorer and an archaeologist at Ithaca College. “We knew there was going to be more, but the scale of it really blew our minds.”  

Researchers found the structures by shooting lasers down from planes to pierce the thick foliage and paint a 3-D picture of the ground below. The technology is called Light Detection and Ranging, or Lidar.  

“This world, which was lost to this jungle, is all of a sudden revealed in the data, and what you thought was this massively understood, studied civilization is all of a sudden brand new again.”  The lasers are only the first step, he added, noting that he and archaeologists still had to trek through jungles to verify the data while contending with thick undergrowth, poisonous snakes, swarms of killer bees and the odd scorpion.  

“It’s being blind, and then being able to see.”

The Maya culture was known for its sophisticated approach to agriculture, arts and astronomy. The peak era for the civilization, which some archaeologists refer to as the Classic Period, is generally considered to have lasted from around A.D. 250 to 900.

The total population at that time was once estimated to be a few million, said Diane Davies, an archaeologist and Maya specialist based in the United Kingdom. But in light of the new lidar data, she said it could now be closer to 10 million.  Dr. Davies was not involved in the lidar project but considered it “really big, sensational news.” She said the data should encourage people not only to re-evaluate Maya civilization, but also to learn from it. “To have such a large number of people living at such a high level for such a long period of time, it really proves the fact that these people were highly developed, and also quite environmentally conscientious,” she said.

Among the structures uncovered were roads, built wide and raised high above the wetlands to connect fields to farmers and markets to metropolises. There were also small dwellings, quarries and intricate irrigation systems. “We’re seeing the spaces in between, and that’s where really interesting stuff was happening,” Dr. Garrison said.  He added that in addition to changing people’s perception of the Maya culture, lidar represented “a sea change” in the field of archaeology.  “I don’t think you see a lot of discoveries happening across the sciences right now that sort of turn a discipline on its head,” he said. “It’s exciting to know that it can still happen.” (New York Times)

Time Magazine Reports a similar Story but draws out some interesting points regarding the food production and agricultural systems required to support a population of up to 10 million .... nearly the population of present day Guatemala:

GUATEMALA CITY) — Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defense 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 Thursday by an alliance of U.S., 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 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.

Researchers used a mapping technique called LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection And Ranging. It bounces pulsed laser light off the ground, revealing contours hidden by dense foliage.

The images revealed that the Mayans altered the landscape in a much broader way than previously thought; in some areas, 95 percent of available land was cultivated.

“Their agriculture is much more intensive and therefore sustainable than we thought, and they were cultivating every inch of the land,” said Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Research Assistant Professor at Tulane University, noting the ancient Mayas partly drained swampy areas that haven’t been considered worth farming since.

And the extensive defensive fences, ditch-and-rampart systems and irrigation canals suggest a highly organized workforce.

The mapping detected about 60,000 individual structures, including four major Mayan ceremonial centers with plazas and pyramids.

Garrison said that this year he went to the field with the LiDAR data to look for one of the roads revealed. “I found it, but if I had not had the LiDAR and known that that’s what it was, I would have walked right over it, because of how dense the jungle is.”

Garrison noted that unlike some other ancient cultures, whose fields, roads and outbuildings have been destroyed by subsequent generations of farming, the jungle grew over abandoned Maya fields and structures, both hiding and preserving them. (Time)

I think its really neat that there has been a major archeological discovery in Northern Guatemala near to Tikal just a month before we are going to visit the ancient ruins of the lost city.

And while ancient Maya cities have disappeared, the maya civilization and mayan people have not disappeared.  The mayan people still live here in Guatemala...in the city, in Antigua, around Atitlan, and in the jungle near Tikal.  Many of the vendors in the market are young Maya women.  Our favorite mayan fruit and veggie vendors in the market are Jennifer and Wendy.