Archaeologists have found an ancient Mayan city that remained
hidden for centuries in the rain forests of eastern
Mexico; a discovery in a remote nature reserve they hope will
yield clues about how the civilization collapsed around 1,000 years
ago.
The team, led by Ivan Sprajc, associate professor at the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, found 15 pyramids -
including one that stands 75 feet tall - ball courts, plazas and
tall, sculpted stone shafts called
stelae.
They named the city Chactun, meaning 'Red Rock' or 'Large
Rock'.
Sprajc said it was likely slightly less populous than the
large ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala, and could have been
home to as many as 30,000 or 40,000 people, though further research
is necessary to determine an exact
estimate.
Chactun likely had its heyday during the late Classic period
of Maya civilization between 600 and 900 A.D., Sprajc
said.
The team's research was approved by the Mexican National
Institute of Anthropology and History and funded by the National
Geographic Society and two European companies.
Sprajc said the site — which covers 22 hectares (54 acres)
and lies 75 miles due west of Chetumal — is one of the largest
found in the Yucatan's central lowlands.
The nearest settlement to the ruins is the small town of
Xpujil, around 16 miles away.
'The whole site is covered by the jungle,' he said in
Spanish.
While the site was unknown to the academic community, Sprajc
found evidence that other people had been to the site as recently
as 20 or 30 years ago, but not since.
'Lumberjacks and gum extractors were certainly already there,
because we saw cuts on the trees,' Sprajc
said.
'What happened is they never told anyone.'
While reviewing aerial photographs taken by the National
Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity 15 years ago
to monitor the nature reserve, Sprajc and his team saw suggestions
of ruins and marked the coordinates.
They then spent three weeks clearing a 10-mile (16-km) path
through the jungle to reach the site.
After mapping the site for six weeks and documenting the
monuments, they blocked the path before leaving to prevent
access.
The presence of multiple ball game courts is an indication
that Chactun was a very important city, Sprajc
said.
It was likely abandoned around the year 1,000, probably due
to demographic pressure, climate change, wars and
rebellions.
Sprajc hopes the find could shed new light
on relations between different regions of the Maya empire during
that period.
The Maya civilization was one of the most advanced in the
pre-Columbian Americas and ruled over large swaths of the Yucatan,
Belize, Guatemala and Honduras at its
height.
Tikal, which was first mapped by archaeologists in the late
19th century, had a population estimated at up to
90,000.
In December, thousands of people traveled to the Yucatan to
celebrate a new cycle in the Maya calendar amidst fears that the
Maya had actually predicted that December 21 would mark the end of
the world.