The Mayans once ruled over large parts of Central America, as evidenced by numerous ruins with some monumental buildings. Archaeologists have now discovered another Mayan city in Mexico. The relics of their buildings, squares and streets overgrown by the rainforest were tracked down using laser scanning and cover a good 16 square kilometers. This metropolitan area, dubbed “Valeriana”, is one of the largest Mayan cities known to date. The ruins hidden in the dense jungle include monumental temple pyramids, two large plazas, a ball court as well as the remains of an irrigation system and many other buildings. According to archaeologists’ estimates, 30,000 to 50,000 people may have lived in this urban area during the heyday of the Maya Empire.
The Mayan culture shaped large parts of Central America for more than 2,000 years. Their empire, divided into around 50 kingdoms and city-states, stretched from the lowlands on the Yucatán Peninsula to the highlands on the Pacific side. During the Classic Maya period from 250 to 900 AD, the Maya were the dominant civilization on the continent. They built massive temples and monumental buildings, used complex astronomical and calendar calculations, and constructed sophisticated systems to supply their cities with water. Despite impressive ruined cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Calakmul or Palenque, not all evidence of this mysterious culture has been discovered. In particular, only a fraction of the Mexican province of Campeche, which is characterized by hilly rainforest, has been archaeologically mapped.
Laser scanning reveals Mayan structures in the rainforest
That’s why a team led by Luke Auld-Thomas from Tulane University in New Orleans took the opportunity to more closely analyze freely available laser scanning data from the province of Campeche that was originally created for environmental mapping. Using a self-developed analysis program, they searched for archaeological traces in the jungle in the approximately 122 square kilometer LIDAR study area. In fact, they found what they were looking for: the archaeologists discovered a total of more than 6,500 pre-Columbian relics in the area of rainforest they examined, including the ruins of a huge Mayan city. “This city and pyramids are right next to the only highway in the area and very close to a modern city,” reports Auld-Thomas. “Although people have been farming among the ruins there for years, no one in government or academia knew anything about it.”
The newly discovered Mayan city stretches over 16.6 square kilometers and contains thousands of buildings. “Our first reaction was, wow, there are so many buildings out there that we didn’t know about. The population there must have been enormous,” says Auld-Thomas. According to archaeologists’ estimates, the Mayan city may once have been inhabited by 30,000 to 50,000 people. The remains of buildings and agricultural areas in the form of walled field terraces fill the entire area almost completely, as the LIDAR analyzes showed. The team named this newly discovered settlement area “Valeriana,” after a nearby lagoon. According to them, this Mayan city may have been one of the largest and most densely populated in all of Central America. “LIDAR tells us that the lowland Maya covered their tropical environments with a diverse tapestry of cities and villages,” says senior author Marcello Canuto of Tulane University. “But we see very clearly how the Maya modified their environment to support their long-lived, complex society.”
Monumental buildings, houses and fields
Further analysis revealed that the Mayan city of Valeriana was divided into two centers located approximately two kilometers apart. In these, numerous monumental buildings are grouped around large, paved squares. “The larger of the two monumental districts shows all the features of a Mayan capital from the classical era: several built squares connected by a wide street, temple pyramids, a ball court and a water reservoir formed by a dam,” the archaeologists report. The two city centers were connected by a dense development of houses and streets. The researchers were also able to identify the remains of a ball court and a large water reservoir using the LIDAR data. According to their information, the construction and structure of the urban areas indicate that it was built before the year 150.
According to archaeologists, this discovery demonstrates that not all Mayan settlements have been discovered yet – even large cities could still be hidden in the rainforest. “The discovery of Valeriana underscores the fact that there are still large gaps in our knowledge of major cities in the still unmapped areas of the Maya lowlands,” write Auld-Thomas and his team.
Source: Luke Auld-Thomas (Tulane University, New Orleans) et al., Antiquity, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148