Image by José Andrés Pacheco Cortés from Pixabay
Posted on 10/29/2024 6:42:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Using advanced lidar imagery, researchers from Tulane University have discovered over 6,500 unexplored ancient Mayan settlements hidden beneath dense Mexican jungle forests.
The researchers say their findings only scratch the surface of the settlements that likely populate the country's unexplored landscape.
The team involved with the historic discovery employed lidar technology to scan a 50-square-mile section of the overgrown landscape in Campeche, Mexico. Like radar, which uses radio waves to image objects, lidar employs laser pulses that bounce off different materials at different rates. These reflected pulses allow researchers to peer beneath the surface of several types of terrains, including jungle forests, by creating a three-dimensional map of hidden structures invisible to the human eye...
That analysis revealed a "vast unexplored" network of ancient Mayan settlements hidden by dense overgrowth. Among the previously unknown ancient Hispanic structures was a large city with stone pyramids reminiscent of previously discovered iconic ancient Mayan pyramids...
Along with its cultural and historical significance, the discovery of such an extensive network of ancient Mayan settlements shows how lidar technology has dramatically altered the landscape of archaeology. In this case, the technology was provided by The Middle American Research Institute (MARI) at Tulane University, which has spent the last ten years expanding and improving lidar's application.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedebrief.org ...
Why were the Mayans “Hispanic”? None of them lived in Hispania or had ancestors from there.
Who knows what our human past has in store for us to discover?
When I was a kid doing science projects for school, I did one on the oceans. At that time, people often said that we actually knew more about the Moon than we did our own seas.
There’s probably a lot in our ancient past that’s more important to know than what’s on Mars...
I don’t think Europeans knew anything about this part of the world until it did become ‘Hispanic’- hence the name.
Everyone there already voted for harris
Still the case.
lidar is some cool tech- really shows old settlements even if overgrown with vegetation- pretty cool that they have 6500 of them to explore now
“...Why were the Mayans “Hispanic”?...”
-
They weren’t.
Who said they were?
The article refers to “unknown ancient Hispanic structures.”
Good catch.
I have an idea - you find out and tell us what the Maya Script called it.
(We’d appreciate the pronunciation, too...)
The Mayan civilization was advanced for its time as were the Aztecs. Both were brutal as were their conquerors. The Mayan civilization collapsed due to climate change. It collapsed before one damn barrel of oil was produced from the ground by man. The Aztecs collapsed by the sword and musket of Spanish Conquistadors. Both of their blood lines still exist but not as a civilization nor tribe. They mixed with the Spanish Conquistadors. Today they are called Mexicans. I am quite familiar with them, I grew up on the border and married one, now 30 years plus. A lot of us white boys in Texas did. I guess I am a Texican.
Really…the ones that survived contact with the Spanish became “Hispanic.”
And that number across the Americas was relatively small.
a 50-square-mile section of the overgrown landscape in Campeche, Mexico.
6,500 in a 50-square mile area...
thriving metropolis it seems- musta been something to see in it’s hayday-
I forgot to add my governor of Texas also married a Mexican lady of class and beauty. He chose wisely. He joined the band of Texicans. He has been an outstanding conservative governor.
Since when is "jungle forests" (which is a redundancy) a "type of terrain"?
All those amazing people disappeared.
It could never happen to us.
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