CAMPECHE, MEXICO—A large Maya city dubbed Chactún, or Red Stone, has been discovered in the jungles of Mexico’s Central Lowlands, in an area once used by loggers, but only recently explored by archaeologists equipped with aerial photographs and images created with LIDAR. The size of the city and its pyramids, palaces, ball courts, and plazas suggest that it was a long-term seat of government some 1,400 years ago. “It is one of the largest sites in the Central Lowlands, comparable in its extent and the magnitude of its buildings with Becan, Nadzcaan, and El Palmar in Campeche,” explained Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Sprajc. The name of a ruler, K’inich B’ahlam, has been found carved on one of the ten stelae unearthed so far at the site. Archaeologists suspect that Chactún will help them understand the relationships between other nearby Maya cities.
Maya City Discovered in Mexico
News June 19, 2013
Recommended Articles
Features November/December 2024
Let the Games Begin
How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
Features November/December 2024
The Many Faces of the Kingdom of Shu
Thousands of fantastical bronzes are beginning to reveal the secrets of a legendary Chinese dynasty
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Egyptian Crocodile Hunt
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Monuments to Youth
-
Features May/June 2013
Haunt of the Resurrection Men
A forgotten graveyard, the dawn of modern medicine, and the hard life in 19th-century London
(Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library) -
Features May/June 2013
The Kings of Kent
The surprising discovery of an Anglo-Saxon feasting hall in the village of Lyminge is offering a new view of the lives of these pagan kings
(Photo by William Laing, © University of Reading) -
Letter from Turkey May/June 2013
Anzac’s Next Chapter
Archaeologists conduct the first-ever survey of the legendary WWI battlefield at Gallipoli
(Samir S. Patel) -
Artifacts May/June 2013
Ancient Near Eastern Figurines
Ceramic figurines were part of a cache of objects found at an Iron Age temple uncovered at the site of Tel Motza outside Jerusalem
(Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)