The Lost World of the Maya is Finally Emerging From the Jungle
FROM THE MAR 2019 ISSUE
From massive fortresses to sprawling suburbs, a bold new vision of the vanished Maya civilization takes shape.
By Nathaniel Scharping|Thursday, February 07, 2019
In Guatemala’s Tikal, only the peaks of monuments rise above the forest. But lidar scans reveal a complex landscape beneath the foliage.
Top: Matthias Kestel/Shutterstock. Bottom: Francisco Estrada-Belli/PACUNAM
Thomas Garrison pauses in the middle of the jungle.
“That’s the causeway right there,” he says, pointing into a random patch of greenery in the Guatemalan lowlands.
I squint, trying to make out features in the tangled rainforest undergrowth. There’s a small lump, rising no more than a foot or two from the forest floor.
The Ithaca College archaeologist has spotted the buried remnants of a Maya road, a ribbon of limestone that once cut through the wrinkled landscape. We’re a full day’s walk from civilization, standing in the remains of a once-populous kingdom. The road before us is just one piece of a vast network leading to terraced fields, reservoirs, defensive fortifications and more, all sprawling invisibly throughout the forest.
In the 1,000-plus years since the Maya society collapsed, the jungle has returned with a vengeance. A tide of flora has swallowed up roads and temples, turning stone structures into lumps and mounds indistinguishable from the natural topography.
More:
http://discovermagazine.com/2019/mar/a-lost-world-emerges?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverTechnology+%28Discover+Technology%29
Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12294468
