PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident

[Stevicus]

Lost Mayan city found in Mexico jungle by accident

The city is the size of Edinburgh and among the largest Mayan sites in ancient Latin America.

www.bbc.com

The team discovered three sites in total, in a survey area the size of Scotland's capital Edinburgh, “by accident” when one archaeologist browsed data on the internet.

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US.

It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique which fires thousands of laser pulses from a plane and maps objects below using the time the signal takes to return.

But when Mr Auld-Thomas processed the data with methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had missed - a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD.

That is more than the number of people who live in the region today, the researchers say.

We can’t be sure what led to the demise and eventual abandonment of the city, but the archaeologists say climate change was a major factor.

The research suggests that when Maya civilisations collapsed from 800AD onwards, it was partly because they were so densely populated and could not survive climate problems.

"It's suggesting that the landscape was just completely full of people at the onset of drought conditions and it didn't have a lot of flexibility left. And so maybe the entire system basically unravelled as people moved farther away," says Mr Auld-Thomas.

Warfare and the conquest of the region by Spanish invaders in the 16th century also contributed to eradication of Maya city states.

I thought it was interesting that they found a lost city by accident.

I find it fascinating how so many cities can tend to survive for thousands of years, even though the government may change, the boundaries of a country might change, and the countries which rule a given city may change. Yet, some cities can still manage to live on and thrive nonetheless. They are rebuilt after being destroyed in war.

But then, there are other cities which not only become abandoned, but are completely forgotten and (as in this case) have to be discovered by accident.

 

[sayak83]

Lost Mayan city found in Mexico jungle by accident

The city is the size of Edinburgh and among the largest Mayan sites in ancient Latin America.

www.bbc.com

I thought it was interesting that they found a lost city by accident.

I find it fascinating how so many cities can tend to survive for thousands of years, even though the government may change, the boundaries of a country might change, and the countries which rule a given city may change. Yet, some cities can still manage to live on and thrive nonetheless. They are rebuilt after being destroyed in war.

But then, there are other cities which not only become abandoned, but are completely forgotten and (as in this case) have to be discovered by accident.

It's certainly not by accident. I bet my house that his/her superviser asked the student to trawl thoroughly through Google scholar to find some research gap or unexplored area for 2-3 months for his research proposal development and hence the student found this obscure reference that spurred his study.

 

[plodding inarticulateness]

What I find surprising is that it is likely nothing will be done with the discovery. I wonder if then leaves free reign for looters to excavate as they see fit. I suppose there are antiquity laws in Mexico regulating such things. Not sure about enforcement.

 

[stvdv]

I thought it was interesting that they found a lost city by accident

I find it interesting and amazing

Some think about exploring Mars
While here on earth there still are lost cities
They missed till now.

When going to Mars, they better don't miss big details like whole cities

 

[Stevicus]

What I find surprising is that it is likely nothing will be done with the discovery. I wonder if then leaves free reign for looters to excavate as they see fit. I suppose there are antiquity laws in Mexico regulating such things. Not sure about enforcement.

There are laws, yes: By law all antiquities from Mexico belong to the Mexican government and it is illegal to sell them or to export them out of Mexico

Violating these laws can lead to fines and prison sentences up to 12 years.

 

[Heyo]

Lost Mayan city found in Mexico jungle by accident

The city is the size of Edinburgh and among the largest Mayan sites in ancient Latin America.

www.bbc.com

I thought it was interesting that they found a lost city by accident.

I find it fascinating how so many cities can tend to survive for thousands of years, even though the government may change, the boundaries of a country might change, and the countries which rule a given city may change. Yet, some cities can still manage to live on and thrive nonetheless. They are rebuilt after being destroyed in war.

But then, there are other cities which not only become abandoned, but are completely forgotten and (as in this case) have to be discovered by accident.

On a related note, I just saw this yesterday:

They missed one city in Mexico, but they may have missed a network of cities, housing 5,000,000+ people all over the Amazon.