Mexico’s anthropological institute announced on Tuesday that an earlier undiscovered ancient Maya city has been found in the jungles of the southern region and that it was probably a significant centre more than a thousand years ago.
According to the INAH institute, the city has massive constructions resembling pyramids, stone columns, three plazas with “imposing buildings,” and other buildings arranged in nearly circular patterns.
According to INAH, between 250 and 1000 AD, the city, which it has dubbed Ocomtun—which in the Yucatec Maya language means “stone column”—would have been a significant centre for the peninsula’s central lowland region.
It was located during a search of a mostly unexplored section of rainforest, in the Balamku ecological reserve on the country’s Yucatan Peninsula. In order to conduct the search, aerial laser mapping (LiDAR) technology was used between March and June.
Southeast Mexico and parts of Central America were covered by the Maya civilisation, which was distinguished by its sophisticated mathematical calendars. Before the entrance of the Spanish conquerors, whose military conquests saw the last fortress fall in the late 17th century, the loss of Maya civilization was caused by widespread political collapse centuries earlier.
Ivan Sprajc, the site’s head archaeologist, said in a statement that the Ocomtun site’s core region comprises multiple pyramid-like buildings up to 15 metres high and is situated on high ground surrounded by huge marshes.
More investigation is required to fully comprehend the societies that once called that region home, but Sprajc noted that his team had also discovered central altars in a location near the La Riguena river that may have been intended for community ceremonies.
According to materials taken from buildings, the site presumably decreased between 800 and 1000 AD. He said that this was probably a reflection of “ideological and population changes” that resulted in the demise of Maya cultures in that area by the 10th century.
