Hidden City Unveiled: Ancient Mayans in Mexico's Jungle

In the dense jungles of southern Mexico, scientists have uncovered clues of an ancient Mayan city using laser technology. This forgotten city, tentatively named Valeriana, might have been as bustling as the well-known city of Calakmul. Researchers believe that vast areas between known Mayan sites were once heavily populated. Adriana Velázquez Morlet from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History noted that this region was an urban landscape shaped by its ancient inhabitants. Using LiDAR technology, over 6, 000 structures were detected across 47 square miles. These structures include temple platforms, ball courts, housing, terraces, and even a potential dam. They date back to between 250 and 900 AD, with the settlement possibly starting 100 years earlier. The discovery was made by re-examining a 2013 LiDAR survey meant to measure deforestation. Luke Auld-Thomas, a graduate student at Tulane University, spotted strange formations in the data. His advisor, Marcello Canuto, said this new data will help paint a clearer picture of ancient Mayan life, combining known history with new details about their settlements and activities. However, Susan D. Gillespie, an anthropology professor at the University of Florida, cautioned that some features need ground verification. LiDAR maps the surface but can't tell when structures were used, making it hard to know the size of a population at any given time.