indigenous Mayan city 3000 years old, 10m people

[jacee]

Of course, this isn't news to the Indigenous Mayan people, but researchers think they've "found" something:

Huge Mayan city with pyramids found hidden under jungle

High-tech mapping suggests 10 million people may have lived within the Maya Lowlands

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/technology/mayan-pyramids-1.4519863

Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defence works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala's Peten region, suggesting that millions more people lived there than previously thought.

The discoveries, which included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, were announced Thursday by an alliance of U.S., European and Guatemalan archaeologists working with Guatemala's Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation.

... And the extensive defensive fences, ditch-and-rampart systems and irrigation canals suggest a highly organized workforce.

"There's state involvement here, because we see large canals being dug that are re-directing natural water flows," said Thomas Garrison, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Ithaca College in New York.

The 2,100 square kilometres (810 square miles) of mapping done vastly expands the area that was [previously known to be] intensively occupied by the Maya, whose culture flourished between roughly 1,000 BC and 900 AD. Their descendants still live in the region.

Ancient Indigenous cosmopolitan cities of North America. Not 'nomads', not wandering 'hunter-gatherers', but sophisticated agricultural, technological, cultural societies and cities of millions of people. 

Fascinating! 

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by jacee
Add heading

[AngusThermopyle]

I wasn't aware that Guatemala had been relocated from Central America to North America. When did that happen?

[H10]

On 2/6/2018 at 3:31 AM, AngusThermopyle said:

I wasn't aware that Guatemala had been relocated from Central America to North America. When did that happen?

Well technically, I don't think there is a central America. It is just a fabricated area to cut the mestitos out of north america.

[?Impact]

20 hours ago, H10 said:

Well technically, I don't think there is a central America.

True, North America and South America are continents, and Central America is simply a political boundary. The isthmus of Panama is what connects the two continents above sea level; this is roughly the area where the country of Panama is located. It is composed of both volcanic islands, and sedimentary rock that filled in to create a land bridge.

Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are all part of continental North America as are many of the island countries as well (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago). Panama is for the most part also part of North America, the dividing line being the Darién watershed which is also the political boundary with Colombia.

Edited February 10, 2018 by ?Impact

[jbg]

Very interesting post.