Laser tech uncovers much Mayan ruins
Archaeologists person unearthed the remains of a Mayan metropolis astir 3,000 years aged successful bluish Guatemala, with pyramids and monuments that constituent to its value arsenic an important ceremonial site, the Central American country's civilization ministry said Thursday.
The Mayan civilization arose astir 2000 BC, reaching its tallness betwixt 400 and 900 AD successful what is present-day confederate Mexico and Guatemala, arsenic good arsenic parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.
The metropolis named "Los Abuelos," Spanish for "The Grandparents," erstwhile stood immoderate 13 miles from the important archaeological tract of Uaxactun, successful Guatemala's bluish Peten department, the ministry said successful a statement.
It is dated to what is known arsenic the "Middle Preclassic" play from astir 800 to 500 BC, and is believed to person been "one of the astir past and important ceremonial centers" of the Mayan civilization successful the jungle country of Peten adjacent the Mexican border, it added.
"The tract presents singular architectural planning," with pyramids and monuments "sculpted with unsocial iconography from the region," said the ministry.
The metropolis takes its sanction from 2 human-like sculptures of an "ancestral couple" recovered astatine the site.
A photograph released by the Guatemalan authorities shows 2 anthropomorphic sculptures that "represent an ancestral couple."
Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports
The figures, dated betwixt 500 and 300 BC, "could beryllium linked to past ritual practices of ancestor worship," said the ministry.
"Unique canal system"
The city, which covers an country of astir six quadrate miles, was discovered by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists successful antecedently little-explored areas of the Uaxactun park.
Nearby, they besides recovered a pyramid lasting 108 feet precocious with murals from the Preclassic play and "a unsocial canal system," according to the statement.
"The acceptable of these 3 sites forms a antecedently chartless municipality triangle... These findings let america to rethink the knowing of the ceremonial and socio-political enactment of pre-Hispanic Peten," said the ministry.
Officials released a video showing archaeologists digging astatine the tract and recovering a assortment of artifacts, arsenic good arsenic an animation of the complex.
Officials released a video showing archaeologists digging astatine the tract and recovering a assortment of artifacts, arsenic good arsenic animation of the complex.
Guatemala's Culture and Sports Ministry
In April, scientists discovered a 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's past Teotihuacan civilization astatine Tikal, elsewhere successful the Peten department.
That find was interpreted arsenic impervious of ties betwixt the 2 pre-Hispanic cultures, which lived astir 800 miles apart. Archaeologists besides said that the altar was believed to person been utilized for sacrifices, "especially of children."
Tikal, astir 15 miles from Uaxcatun, is the main archaeological tract successful Guatemala and 1 of its biggest tourer attractions.
Last October, an American doctoral pupil discovered a sprawling Maya metropolis wrong a dense jungle successful Mexico.
Scientists and archaeologists person discovered past Mayan ruins by shooting lasers down from a level to penetrate the dense jungle.
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