Since 2007, Ivan Šprajc of the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts has led teams of explorers into the rain forest of Campeche, Mexico, in search of the remains of the Maya civilization. Using aerial photographs, Šprajc identified several likely sites. After three weeks of hacking through dense jungle, his expedition found itself in a previously unknown Maya city, which they named Tamchén. Once they had documented that site, the expedition moved on to another, larger city that turned out to be Lagunita, a site that had been documented in the 1970s but later forgotten. Project surveyor Aleš Marsetič spent several weeks mapping the steles, buildings, and plazas in the two cities. “It’s incredible,” says Marsetič, “after a thousand years or more these structures are still standing, and the monuments have inscriptions you can still read. It’s really amazing.”
Maya Cities Lost and Found
SHARE:
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2024
Bronze Age Beads Go Abroad
(Courtesy Cambridge Archaeological Unit)
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2024
Rubber Ball Recipe
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2024
Black Magic Seeds
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2024
A Friend for Hercules
-
Artifacts January/February 2015
Dagger
(Courtesy Anders Rosendahl) -
Around the World January/February 2015
NEW ZEALAND
(Tim Mackrell/University of Auckland) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2015
The Price of Plunder
(Courtesy Penn Museum, image #148769) -
Features January/February 2015
Shipwreck Alley
From wood to steel, from sail to steam, from early pioneers to established industry, the history of the Great Lakes can be found deep beneath Thunder Bay
(Courtesy Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary/NOAA)