An aerial survey over northern Guatemala has turned up over 60,000 new Maya structures, including pyramids, causeways, house foundations and defensive fortifications. It's a watershed discovery that has already led archaeologists to new sites to excavate and explore. The findings may also revise estimates of how many ancient Maya once lived in the region upward by "multiple factors," said Tom Garrison, an archaeologist who specializes in the Maya culture and is part of the consortium that funded and organized the survey. Far more ancient Maya lived on the landscape than there are people in the region today, Garrison told Live Science, and they did it without the destructive slash-and-burn agriculture that is crippling the jungle in modern times. https://www.livescience.com/61616-mysterious-maya-structures-discovered.html
Archaeologists have spent more than a century traipsing through the Guatemalan jungle, Indiana Jones-style, searching through dense vegetation to learn what they could about the Mayan civilization that was one of the dominant societies in Mesoamerica for centuries. But the latest discovery — one that archaeologists are calling a “game changer” — didn't even require a can of bug spray. ... According to the Associated Press, researchers now believe that as many as 10 million people may have lived in the area known as the Maya Lowlands — two or three times as many people as scientists had thought previously. And because all those people needed to eat, in some areas 95 percent of available land was drained — including areas that have not been farmed since Mayan civilization fell. “Their agriculture is much more intensive and therefore sustainable than we thought, and they were cultivating every inch of the land,” Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Research Assistant Professor at Tulane University, told the AP. ... A.D. 250 to 900, the civilization covered an area twice the size of medieval England, according to National Geographic, but was much more densely populated. “Most people had been comfortable with population estimates of around 5 million,” said Estrada-Belli, who directs a multidisciplinary archaeological project at Holmul, Guatemala. “With this new data it’s no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there — including many living in low-lying, swampy areas that many of us had thought uninhabitable.” Lidar revealed a previously undetected structure between the two sites that Garrison told the AP “can’t be called anything other than a Maya fortress.” That and other newly discovered fortresses indicate the Mayans may have been involved in more conflict — even outright warfare — than previously believed. “It’s this hilltop citadel that has these ditch and rampart systems . . . when I went there, one of these things in nine meters (30 feet) tall,” he said. Researchers also have a new found way of thinking about the jungle — as both impediment and preserver. The remains of other cultures have been destroyed by generations upon generations of farming. But after the Mayans abandoned their empire in AD 900, the jungle grew over abandoned fields and structures. It hid them, but also helped to conserve them. “In this the jungle, which has hindered us in our discovery efforts for so long, has actually worked as this great preservative tool of the impact the culture had across the landscape,” Garrison said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...red-structures-reveal/?utm_term=.2c5d3e08b158
Interesting stuff Sly. But this line jumps off the page at me since I think it misrepresents the issue. I suspect the Mayans did not use Slash-and-burn agriculture because they do not need to do so. Nor do modern day people. But someone wants to harvest the logs for the cash is the reason it begins. Which is then followed by burning the residue as farmer come next to the new land. The quick profit step is the modern day interjection, not a necessity.
Not about logs man. Its about oil and gas exploration. Companies go in and cut down swathes of jungle, then dig holes to drill oil, leaving waste pits, lakes, of toxic sludge behind. The damage is extreme to both plant and animal life. Ecological systems are diminished at disturbing rates each year.
60,000 structures over 800 sq miles...that's quite a find...so much history is buried in compost.....trees provide ancient form of air conditioning in the tropics....and a ready food source for hunter gatherers....I think they'll find more and more that Mayan and Toltec history is older than they previously thought.
Yes but... If all the Indians (indigenous) came across the land bridge created by low sea levels during the past Ice Age, then these ancient civilizations create a question. Since this theory has them populating North America first, then why were the most elaborate societies created so far away from there beginnings in North America? The Yucatan is a long friggin way from Alaska. Peru and the Incas is even farther.
Wife and I spent time in Palenque back in the day. Amazing, beautiful . . . and so friggin' hot and humid. Have no idea how anyone could live in that jungle, let alone create a massive civilization there.
Yep! And why would you go all the way down there to do it? Passing up places like the Columbia or Sacramento Rivers where life is easy. Dinner can be had by going down to the creek and pitch out a Salmon. Something missing in this picture.
Alaska would be a pretty cold place to start a civilization, the climate in Mexico and parts of South America seem better. 10,000 years is a long time, look at what you pale faces have done in the US in a couple hundred years.
Because Noah discovered America 6000 years ago. After the whites cleared out the giant marsupials, Indians were brave enough to cross the bridge of no return.
The answer to your question may lie in Winston, OR. On our way home yesterday from a very enjoyable Bruce Cockburn concert at the Historic Rogue Theater in Grants Pass, OR, we took a trip through Wildlife Safari, having somehow never visited it before. Across the street, is/was Noah's Ark Biblical History Museum. It has just recently closed due to the owners retiring to San Diego. They have provided a virtual tour for those who for whatever reason did not visit before. http://www.noahsarkwinston.com/ https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaur...k_Biblical_History_Museum-Winston_Oregon.html To contact us: Noah's Ark Attn: Shirley Thrush PO Box 2107 Winston, OR 97496 Perhaps they could answer your question?
I'm a huge fan of his....saw him in Eugene a few years back and got to talk with him after the show...what a good man he is
Those of us from african start of society evolved from apes while those in south america evolved from tacos obviously.
