▲ 367 ▼ Lost Mayan city found in Mexico jungle by accident (www.bbc.com) submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world 26 comments fedilink hide all child comments A huge Mayan city has been discovered centuries after it disappeared under jungle canopy in Mexico. Archaeologists found pyramids, sports fields, causeways connecting districts and amphitheatres in the southeastern state of Campeche. They found the hidden complex - which they have called Valeriana - using Lidar, a type of radar survey that maps structures buried under vegetation. They believe it is second in size only to Calakmul, thought to be the largest Mayan site in ancient Latin America.
[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 60 points 2 years ago (3 children) “I was on something like page 16 of Google search Homie was browsing the dark web. permalink fedilink source hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (2 children) “I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a radar survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US. It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique which fires thousands of radar pulses from a plane and maps objects below using the time the signal takes to return. But when Mr Auld-Thomas processed the data with methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had missed - a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD. the full section on that. he was looking for the lidar data to analyze. I'm not sure why they didn't just ask the group doing the lidar sweeps for the data, though. I find it hard to believe they'd tell an archeologist 'no' for some reason. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children) I find it hard to believe they’d tell an archeologist ‘no’ for some reason. Depends on if enough of the team is superstitious, and fears their findings will lead to a greater disturbance unleashing a long forgotten ancient force that may devastate the region. Buuut that's highly unlikely, so yeah, weird they didn't reach out. Unless they were the superstitious ones in a different way and wanted to be first to seize an ancient power (or less interestingly, they wanted the credit for the finding and didn't want to let on what they were looking for). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago Or worried that the site would be crushed up and used for road fill. permalink fedilink source parent [–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* Hmm, yes, you're onto something. I think we've sniffed out a very elaborate DnD campaign...in progress! Exciting times. permalink fedilink source parent [–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child) Being a phd. myself, I would say it seems likely that the person in question wasn't aware of the research/sweeps that had been done, and was searching through literature with the express purpose of finding out what kind of work had been done on the subject, when they came across this data. The way I usually find out about a research campaign is by reading articles from said campaign. It's very rare that I'll need to reach out to the authors to ask for more data than what is available in their publications. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago I’m not sure climate change peeps would necessarily publish the raw lidar map in a way that would be useful for an archeologist. There’s a lot of data there. permalink fedilink source parent [–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 20 points 2 years ago brah, that was just the first real search result after all the ads for "we buy aztec gold" and "top 10 Myan cities you have to visit" permalink fedilink source parent [–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago Although they have a hell of a thing to say when someone says, "you need to do your own research" to them. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (2 children) “I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a radar survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US. It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique which fires thousands of radar pulses from a plane and maps objects below using the time the signal takes to return. But when Mr Auld-Thomas processed the data with methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had missed - a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD. the full section on that. he was looking for the lidar data to analyze. I'm not sure why they didn't just ask the group doing the lidar sweeps for the data, though. I find it hard to believe they'd tell an archeologist 'no' for some reason. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children) I find it hard to believe they’d tell an archeologist ‘no’ for some reason. Depends on if enough of the team is superstitious, and fears their findings will lead to a greater disturbance unleashing a long forgotten ancient force that may devastate the region. Buuut that's highly unlikely, so yeah, weird they didn't reach out. Unless they were the superstitious ones in a different way and wanted to be first to seize an ancient power (or less interestingly, they wanted the credit for the finding and didn't want to let on what they were looking for). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago Or worried that the site would be crushed up and used for road fill. permalink fedilink source parent [–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* Hmm, yes, you're onto something. I think we've sniffed out a very elaborate DnD campaign...in progress! Exciting times. permalink fedilink source parent [–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child) Being a phd. myself, I would say it seems likely that the person in question wasn't aware of the research/sweeps that had been done, and was searching through literature with the express purpose of finding out what kind of work had been done on the subject, when they came across this data. The way I usually find out about a research campaign is by reading articles from said campaign. It's very rare that I'll need to reach out to the authors to ask for more data than what is available in their publications. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago I’m not sure climate change peeps would necessarily publish the raw lidar map in a way that would be useful for an archeologist. There’s a lot of data there. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children) I find it hard to believe they’d tell an archeologist ‘no’ for some reason. Depends on if enough of the team is superstitious, and fears their findings will lead to a greater disturbance unleashing a long forgotten ancient force that may devastate the region. Buuut that's highly unlikely, so yeah, weird they didn't reach out. Unless they were the superstitious ones in a different way and wanted to be first to seize an ancient power (or less interestingly, they wanted the credit for the finding and didn't want to let on what they were looking for). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago Or worried that the site would be crushed up and used for road fill. permalink fedilink source parent [–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* Hmm, yes, you're onto something. I think we've sniffed out a very elaborate DnD campaign...in progress! Exciting times. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago Or worried that the site would be crushed up and used for road fill. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* Hmm, yes, you're onto something. I think we've sniffed out a very elaborate DnD campaign...in progress! Exciting times. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child) Being a phd. myself, I would say it seems likely that the person in question wasn't aware of the research/sweeps that had been done, and was searching through literature with the express purpose of finding out what kind of work had been done on the subject, when they came across this data. The way I usually find out about a research campaign is by reading articles from said campaign. It's very rare that I'll need to reach out to the authors to ask for more data than what is available in their publications. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago I’m not sure climate change peeps would necessarily publish the raw lidar map in a way that would be useful for an archeologist. There’s a lot of data there. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago I’m not sure climate change peeps would necessarily publish the raw lidar map in a way that would be useful for an archeologist. There’s a lot of data there. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 20 points 2 years ago brah, that was just the first real search result after all the ads for "we buy aztec gold" and "top 10 Myan cities you have to visit" permalink fedilink source parent
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago Although they have a hell of a thing to say when someone says, "you need to do your own research" to them. permalink fedilink source parent