How a PhD student discovered a lost Mayan city hundreds of kilometers away

A new Maya city, lost for centuries in the dense jungle of southern Mexico, has been discovered from the computer of a PhD student hundreds of miles away. This is the story of how he did it.

The settlement, called Valeriana After a nearby freshwater lagoon, it has all the hallmarks of a classic Mayan political capital: enclosed plazas, pyramids, a ball court, a reservoir and an architectural layout that suggests a foundation before 150 AD, according to a recently published paper. study in the news Antiquity.

And how did Luke Auld-Thomas, a graduate student at Tulane University, think? The answer lies in lasers. Until recently, archeology was limited to what a researcher could observe from the ground and with his eyes. The technology of detecting and measuring distances with light, known as lidarhas revolutionized this field, allowing us to scan entire regions in search of archaeological sites hidden under dense vegetation or concrete.

Let’s travel back in time. The year is 1848 and the governor of Petén, Guatemala, Modesto Méndez, together with Ambrosio Tut, an artist and chronicler of the time, rediscovered Tikal, one of the most majestic archaeological sites in the world. Mayan Civilization. In the mid-19th century, little was known about this advanced culture – which calculated the lunar, solar and Venus cycles, and invented hieroglyphic writing and the concept of the number zero with barely any tools.

The dense rainforest surrounding Tikal and the lack of roads made it extremely difficult to reach the remains. But the Guatemalan government still pushed deep into the Petén jungle in search of its cultural heritage. Guided by the rumors of the locals, with a machete in hand, measuring tape and compass, they entered the jungle of Petén for an almost impossible mission. Arriving at the site in Tikal, Méndez and his team were amazed by what they saw: gigantic temples and pyramids, largely covered by jungle. The most imposing structures, hidden by nature, towered above the canopy. Tikal, although partially buried, retained its majesty and provided clues to the enormous size of the city.

History repeated itself in 2024, but with some important variations. Instead of a machete, Auld-Thomas armed himself with a search engine. WIRED spoke this week with him and Marcello Canuto, director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute, about the discovery.