Ask the locals? LOL!
Out of curiosity, the article only mentions “for 1,000 yrs” what time frame did these buildings come into existence?
The buildings were built anywhere from about 600 AD to 1000 AD before the Mayan empire collapsed.
I worked on the outer-area search project at Tikal for a few weeks and we found worker settlements (usually 3-6 house mounds and a chultun (storage area underground).
We did it the old way. Used Mayan and Mexican Indians to bush out the old oil prospectors trails and then went off about 50 meters on each side of the trail, recorded what we found, and then moved on outward about 20 clicks.
We did find one small temple (and a handful of baby scorpions). July 1966.
Never use an American machete in a jungle. Go with the longer Philippino ones. Won’t take your foot off.