A team of archaeologists has discovered more than 6,600 previously unknown structures linked to the Maya civilization in southeast Mexico, including a hidden city named "Valeriana" with impressive pyramids. The discovery was made by analyzing existing LiDAR data covering parts of Campeche state in the Yucatán Peninsula, revealing a densely populated ancient urban landscape that challenges previous assumptions about the Maya civilization.
The researchers, led by PhD student Luke Auld-Thomas from Northern Arizona University, utilized LiDAR technology to uncover a vast network of structures hidden beneath dense vegetation across an area of approximately 130 square kilometers. The study was published in the journal *Antiquity*, highlighting how LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, has revolutionized archaeological research by allowing the mapping of large areas quickly and with high precision.
"Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of variability," said Auld-Thomas, according to *Sky News*.
The findings include a variety of structures, such as rural farming villages, regional market towns, and a large city with pyramids right next to the area's only highway. The city, named Valeriana by the researchers, features multiple enclosed plazas, grand pyramids, a ball court, causeways connecting districts, and a reservoir formed by damming an arroyo. Spanning about 16.6 square kilometers, Valeriana is considered second in density only to the famous Maya city of Calakmul.
"We didn't just find rural areas and smaller settlements… We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area's only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years," Auld-Thomas told *Sky News*.
The discovery was made possible by analyzing LiDAR data that was publicly available on the internet. Auld-Thomas stumbled upon the dataset while searching online, as reported by *LaVanguardia*. "I was already about page 16 of the Google search results when I stumbled upon a laser study from a Mexican environmental research organization," he said.
The LiDAR data, originally collected in 2013 by Mexican environmental scientists for measuring and monitoring carbon in Mexico's forests, provided a detailed three-dimensional map of the region. By processing the data with archaeological methods, the team was able to identify thousands of hidden structures that had been overlooked.
"LiDAR allows us to map large areas very quickly, and at really high precision and levels of detail, that made us react, 'Oh wow, there are so many buildings out there we didn't know about, the population must have been huge,'" Auld-Thomas said in a statement, according to *The Debrief*.
The research was co-authored by Professor Marcello Canuto of Tulane University, who emphasized the significance of the findings. "LiDAR is teaching us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities over their tropical landscape," Canuto said, as reported by *The Hill*.
The study area in east-central Campeche had largely escaped scientific attention until now, leaving significant gaps in the understanding of Maya settlements in the region. The discovery of Valeriana and other structures suggests that the central Maya Lowlands were much more densely populated and urbanized than previously thought.
According to *Newsweek*, the researchers wrote in their study, "The discovery of Valeriana highlights the fact that there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the existence or absence of large sites within as-yet unmapped areas of the Maya Lowlands."
The structures found include not only large urban centers like Valeriana but also smaller villages and agricultural areas, offering new insights into the organization and extent of the ancient Maya civilization.
"While some areas are replete with vast agricultural patches and dense populations, others have only small communities. Nonetheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya changed their environment to support a long-lived complex society," Professor Canuto said, according to *The Debrief*.
The use of LiDAR technology has become essential in modern archaeology, particularly for exploring dense forests like those covering the Maya Lowlands. LiDAR fires thousands of laser pulses from an aircraft to map objects below by measuring the time it takes for the signal to return, allowing researchers to "see through" the forest canopy and uncover hidden structures.
"LiDAR technology has completely changed the way archaeologists explore vegetation-covered areas, such as tropical regions," explained Professor Canuto, as reported by *Newsweek*.
The findings challenge previous assumptions about the Maya civilization, indicating that dense cities and extensive settlements were common across large portions of the central Maya Lowlands. This suggests a more populous and urban ancient Maya landscape than previously known.
"Given the environmental and social challenges we face due to rapid population growth, studying ancient metropolises and broadening our vision of what urban life can be could give us the freedom to imagine better and more sustainable ways of being urban now and in the future," Auld-Thomas concluded, according to *LaVanguardia*.
The discovery underscores the potential for further archaeological findings in the region, with many more structures likely waiting to be discovered under forest cover and upper soil layers. "The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it. That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that, no, we have not found everything, and yes, there's a lot more to be discovered," Auld-Thomas stated, as reported by *The Hill*.
Future research will involve fieldwork at the newly found sites to perform a more detailed analysis of the structures, which could be fundamental in solving modern problems faced by urban development.
Sources: Newsweek, La Razón, Diario de Sevilla, el Nuevo Herald, RPP noticias, The Debrief, Interesting Engineering, Sky News, kp.ru, Deutsche Welle, Liputan 6, The Mirror, BBC, Spiegel Online, Milenio.com, LaVanguardia, NRC, The Hill
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq