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Colgate anthropologist discovers ancient tomb in Honduras Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Colgate anthropology professor Allan Maca peers into a section of a tomb in Copan, Honduras, that dates back to the 7th century A.D. (Photo by Raul Mejia) Colgate anthropology professor Allan Maca and a team of researchers have found a previously unknown tomb in Copán, Honduras, dating back to the 7th century A.D. that contained the skeleton of an elite member of ancient Maya society in the city. The unusual characteristics of the tomb’s construction, the human remains, and the artifacts found near the body, according to Maca, paint...

The approach, known as light detection and ranging scanning (lidar) involves directing a rapid succession of laser pulses at the ground from an aircraft. The time and wavelength of the pulses reflected by the surface are combined with GPS and other data to produce a precise, three-dimensional map of the landscape. Crucially, the technique probes beneath foliage - useful for areas where vegetation is dense. ... The team also found that Angamuco has an unusual layout. Monuments such as pyramids and open plazas are largely concentrated in eight zones around the city's edges, rather being located in one large city...

(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....

[S]cholars digitally removed the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape, revealing the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed. “The LiDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated,” said Thomas Garrison, an Ithaca College archaeologist....who specializes in using digital technology for archaeological research. The project mapped more than 800 square miles (2,100 square kilometers) of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region of Guatemala, producing the largest LiDAR data set...

One of the earliest human skeletons of America, which belonged to a person that lived more than 10,000 years ago, in the Ice Age, was recovered by Mexican specialists from a flooded cave in Quintana Roo. The information it has lodged for centuries will reveal new data regarding the settlement of the Americas. The Young Man of Chan Hol, as the skeleton is known among the scientific community, due to the slight tooth wear it presents, which indicates an early age, is the fourth of our earliest ancestors found in the American Continent, and has been studied as part of...

The Gran Acuifero Maya (GAM), a project dedicated to the study and preservation of the subterranean waters of the Yucatan peninsula, said the 216-mile (347km) cave was identified after months of exploring a maze of underwater channels. Near the beach resort of Tulum, the project found that the cave system known as Sac Actun, once measured at 163 miles, is actually connected with the 53-mile Dos Ojos system. In a statement, GAM said for that reason, Sac Actun now absorbs Dos Ojos. GAM director and underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda hailed the discovery as an 'amazing' find. He also said...

Apparently laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in a fiery ritual, one of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved from an undersea cave along Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers say. Dating to a time when the now lush region was a near desert, the "Young Man of Chan Hol" may help uncover how the first Americans arrived—and who they were. About 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Cancún, the cave system of Chan Hol—Maya for "little hole"—is like a deep gouge into the Caribbean coast. In 2006, after entering the cave's opening, about 30 feet (10...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Cave divers in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula have discovered what may be the world's longest underground river, connecting two cave systems with a waterway at least 95 miles long. A group of foreign divers exploring the area near the Caribbean beach resort of Playa del Carmen have yet to name the stretch, but believe it could be connected to two other major systems, adding more than 125 miles to its length. "It's a bit of the Star Trek syndrome: the thrill of exploration, to go where no one has gone before," said diver Steve Bogaerts, who helped...

...Blaine Gibson, who has been gathering suspected MH370 debris as it washes up on Madagascar and Mozambique, said Mr Raza had been due to deliver new items to Malaysian investigators in Kuala Lumpur when he was unexpectedly slain. The timing has rattled Mr Gibson, who says he has been receiving death threats because of his self-financed mission to solve the baffling aviation mystery. He had planned to keep details of his latest finds — which included two items he considered particularly promising — under wraps until they had been safely transported off the island but changed his mind after Mr...

“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting-edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” the Joint Agency Coordination Center in Australia said in a statement. “The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness,” the agency said. The jet carrying 239 people on board vanished from civilian radar in the early hours of March 8, 2014, without so much as a distress call from its pilots. After several false starts,...

Blaine Alan Gibson has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones – though in temperament he’s probably a lot closer to Sherlock Holmes. Blaine Alan Gibson has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones – though in temperament he’s probably a lot closer to Sherlock Holmes. Gibson, 59, made headlines around the world earlier this year after he found debris from a Boeing 777 that was later confirmed to be a piece of the infamous Malaysia flight 370 aircraft, which went missing shortly after take-off on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board. After diligently working to transfer the panel to...

Charred debris, possibly belonging to the missing MH370 plane, has been handed to investigators - raising the prospect of a flash fire on board the ill-fated jet. An American amateur investigator handed over several pieces of blackened debris to Australia's Transport Safety Bureau on Monday in what may prove to be a breakthrough in one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history. Blaine Gibson said the material, which had washed up in Madagascar, included what appeared to be an internal panel.

Used by the Maya for travel and transporting goods, the causeways were identified in the Mirador Basin, which lies in the far northern Petén region of Guatemala, within the largest tract of virgin tropical forest remaining in Central America. Also known as the Kan Kingdom, El Mirador is considered the cradle of Mayan civilization. Prior to its abandonment in 150 A.D., it was the largest city-state in the world both in size — 833 square miles — and population. It boasted the largest known pyramid in Central America, and was home to at least one million people. Researchers have known...

The ambitious Snake kings used force and diplomacy to create the most powerful alliance in their culture’s history. The ancient city of Holmul isn’t much to look at. To the casual observer it’s just a series of steep, forested hills in the middle of the jungle in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The jungle here in the Petén Basin is thick and warm but drier than you might expect. And silent, except for the drum of cicadas and the occasional calls of howler monkeys. Take a closer look, and you may notice that most of these hills are arranged...

A Nagoya University researcher and his leading international research group discovered a Great Platform built with different kinds of stone at the archeological site of San Andrés, El Salvador, and challenged the prevailing theory regarding the sociocultural development of Southeastern Maya frontier... Archaeological investigation conducted during 40's and 90's has shown that San Andrés had long human occupation beginning from the Middle Preclassic (ca. 600 BC) until the Early Postclassic (ca. AD 1200), in which had role as political, economic and religious center during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900)... Between February and May of 2016, the research group led...

Credit: Canadian Space Agency, via TheTelegraph ====================================================================================================================== William Gadoury, a 15 year old Mayan history enthusiast who lives in Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, Quebec, has, according to Le Journal de Montréal, used satellite imagery to make associations between ancient Mayan city locations and constellations, and in so doing, may have actually discovered a site that has not been previously known. According to the news report, Gadoury, who claims to have been long interested in the Mayan culture, gained access to satellite imagery—after applying the Geographic Information System he found a correlation between 22 constellations and 117 Mayan cities. But, in so...

We're all suckers for a great story, and "Teen finds lost Mayan city" definitely sounds promising. Throw in some ancient cosmology, a little help from the Canadian Space Agency and some satellite sleuthing, and the movie offers practically write themselves. Sadly, the reality may not be as cinematic as promised. Experts say the "city" found by Canadian teen William Gadoury could be something much simpler: Abandoned fields. This whole archaeological kerfuffle started as a tantalizing possibility: Gadoury, 15, says he used Mayan constellation patterns to pinpoint ruins of a heretofore unknown ancient Mayan city. The Canadian Space Agency helped him...

(Title was shortened. Add: "of the night sky from his bedroom ") A Canadian schoolboy appears to have discovered a lost Mayan city hidden deep in the jungles of Mexico using a new method of matching stars to the location of temples on earth. William Gadoury, 15, was fascinated by the ancient Central American civilization and spent hours poring over diagrams of constellations and maps of known Mayan cities. And then he made a startling realisation: the two appeared to be linked. “I was really surprised and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched...

Researchers have confirmed that the Mayan pyramid excavated at the Acropolis of Toniná, Chiapas is one the largest pyramids ever discovered. Discovered in 2010, Emiliano Gallaga and his team began their excavation under the impression that the pyramid was built on the top of a hill. It was not until recently that they’ve managed to fully assess it and truly see what they’re working with. Wighing in at 75-meters tall with seven distinct districts all with their own purpose – such as Temples, palaces, markets, housing, administration – the magnitude of the Toniná pyramid compares even to that of the...

Aventura - ancient Maya city discovered on modern papaya farm in Corozal Friday, 01 June 2007 By Joseph Stamp Romero - Staff Reporter Excavated structure where platform was found. Platform can be seen to the left of the gentleman. Archeologists say they have stumbled on three Mayan foundations, which are part of a large Mayan city called Aventura, dating back to the early Classic Period of the Mayan Civilization. Among the artifacts retrieved are the bones a man and a woman, believed to be 1,800 years old. The Belize National Institute of Archaeology have said that they found what appears...