In Guatemala, scientists map well-organized network of 417 cities dating to circa 1000 B.C.
Beneath 1,350 square miles of dense jungle in northern Guatemala, scientists have discovered 417 cities that date back to circa 1000 B.C. and that are connected by nearly 110 miles of “superhighways” — a network of what researchers called “the first freeway system in the world.”
Scientist say this extensive road-and-city network, along with sophisticated ceremonial complexes, hydraulic systems and agricultural infrastructure, suggests that the ancient Maya civilization, which stretched through what is now Central America, was far more advanced than previously thought.
Mapping the area since 2015 using lidar technology — an advanced type of radar that reveals things hidden by dense vegetation and the tree canopy — researchers have found what they say is evidence of a well-organized economic, political and social system operating some two millennia ago.
The discovery is sparking a rethinking of the accepted idea that the people of the mid- to late-Preclassic Maya civilization (1000 B.C. to A.D. 250) would have been only hunter-gatherers, “roving bands of nomads, planting corn,” says Richard Hansen, the lead author of a study about the finding that was published in January and an affiliate research professor of archaeology at Idaho State University.1
These findings in the El Mirador jungle region are a “game changer” in thinking about the history of the Americas, Hansen said. The lidar findings have unveiled “a whole volume of human history that we’ve never known” because of the scarcity of artifacts from that period, which were probably buried by later construction by the Maya and then covered by jungle.
- 1. “We now know that the Preclassic period was one of extraordinary complexity and architectural sophistication, with some of the largest buildings in world history being constructed during this time,” says Hansen, president of the Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies, a nonprofit scientific research institution that focuses on ancient Maya history.
Hansen, Richard D., Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Josephine Thompson, Ross Ensley, Enrique Hernández, Thomas Schreiner, Edgar Suyuc-Ley, and Gustavo Martínez. “LiDAR Analyses in the Contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: an Introduction to New Perspectives on Regional Early Maya Socioeconomic and Political Organization.” Ancient Mesoamerica, 2022, 1–40. doi:10.1017/S0956536122000244.
Abstract: LiDAR coverage of a large contiguous area within the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin (MCKB) of northern Guatemala has identified a concentration of Preclassic Maya sites (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 150) connected by causeways, forming a web of implied social, political, and economic interactions. This article is an introduction to one of the largest, contiguous, regional LiDAR studies published to date in the Maya Lowlands. More than 775 ancient Maya settlements are identified within the MCKB, and 189 more in the surrounding karstic ridge, which we condensed into 417 ancient cities, towns, and villages of at least six preliminary tiers based on surface area, volumetrics, and architectural configurations. Many tiered sites date to the Middle and Late Preclassic periods, as determined by archaeological testing, and volumetrics of contemporaneously constructed and/or occupied architecture with similar morphological characteristics. Monumental architecture, consistent architectural formats, specific site boundaries, water management/collection facilities, and 177 km of elevated Preclassic causeways suggest labor investments that defy organizational capabilities of lesser polities and potentially portray the strategies of governance in the Preclassic period. Settlement distributions, architectural continuities, chronological contemporaneity, and volumetric considerations of sites provide evidence for early centralized administrative and socio-economic strategies within a defined geographical region.
Resumen: La cobertura LiDAR de una gran área contigua dentro de la Cuenca Kárstica Mirador-Calakmul (CKMC) del norte de Guatemala, ha permitido la identificación de una concentración de antiguos sitios mayas preclásicos (ca. 1000 a.C.–150 d.C.) conectados por calzadas elevadas, formando una red de implicaciones sociales, políticas y económicas. Hasta la fecha, se han identificado 775 asentamientos mayas antiguos dentro del CKMC, así como cientos más en el sistema geomorfológico circundante, que comprende al menos 417 sitios que formaban ciudades, pueblos y aldeas antiguas. Se propone una jerarquía de sitios de asentamientos de al menos seis niveles de distintos tamaños, área de superficie, configuraciones arquitectónicas y volúmenes de relleno, con una mayoría que data de los períodos preclásico medio y tardío. La arquitectura monumental, los formatos arquitectónicos consistentes, los límites y unificaciones de sitios específicos, las instalaciones de gestión y recolección de agua y más de 177 km de calzadas elevadas preclásicas sugieren inversiones laborales que desafían las capacidades organizativas de entidades políticas menores y representan las estrategias de gobierno en los períodos preclásicos. Las distribuciones de los asentamientos, las continuidades arquitectónicas, la contemporaneidad cronológica y la organización jerárquica de los sitios, brindan evidencia de una administración centralizada temprana y estrategias socioeconómicas, dentro de una región geográfica definida en las tierras bajas mayas.
