Mayan treasures: the remains of a queen from 1500 years ago were discovered thanks to laser technology

Through laser technology, archaeologists have located the burial in which the skeleton of a decapitated child has also been found. Scientists believe that in the tomb are also the remains of the king who accompanied the monarch.

In the same way, the study discovered objects used by the Mayan civilization that would be the key to the identification of the aforementioned characters.

These utensils were found in an underground cave located in the Guatemalan jungle, thanks to the laser cards, a technique that has found about 60,000 structures of Mesoamerican culture.

The remains were shown by National Geographic A group of experts they confirmed by these revelations the great extension of civilization.

According to this survey, the technique known as LIDAR made it possible to find pyramids, whole cities, walls, etc. Mayan treasures, in the city Holmul, located in northern Guatemala.

The archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Bell reported that among the excavations carried out on the floor of a palace They discovered the remains of a woman and a man, who could be a queen and a king.

"We are almost sure that [el masculino] he is the king because we have this great vase with the name of a king very important from a neighboring town that controlled this, "said the researcher.

"No one, except for a king or queen, would have possession of this type of article," explained Estrada-Belli, who also said than other discovered objects have already been identified as royalties.

Sure the chocolate drinking vase found in the burial which dates from 554 and 558 AD, the archaeologist said "we know that the warriors and the high elite have enjoyed different types of chocolate drinks. According to an inscription on the vase, it is a chocolate drink with cornmeal. "

He added that "we know many references elsewhere that, on certain important occasions, a king invited his allies and lords and made some of these vases for him and then gave them to his closest allies." The reason why this individual , who is certainly not the person named in the vase, must have it. "

The research team also found a series of buildings and pyramids damaged and burned on a hill in the city Witzna.

"What happened with the monument at the base of the pyramid and what happened with the top of the pyramid may be two different things, but in the case of the broken stone monument, we are sure that it was essentially an attack on the city. Many of the most important buildings have been destroyed, burned and monuments with images of disfigured kings, "said Estrada-Belli.

The Mayan culture was one of the oldest in Mesoamerica. The first antecedents of its existence date back to the pre-clbadical period (1000 BC) and extended to the post-clbadical period (1697 AD), although its splendor is produced in the clbadical era.

The Mayans settled in what is now southeastern Mexico and part of Central America.

LIDAR technology has allowed the rediscovery of Maya

Maps covering 2,000 square kilometers of the northern territory of Guatemala revealed the site of an ancient Mayan mega city hidden in the heart of the rainforest.

Researchers discovered more than 61,000 structures using LIDAR vision technology.

In 2016, Juan Fernández Díaz, of the University of Houston, flew over Guatemala with his team aboard a ship equipped with LIDAR. Every second of flight and at an average altitude of 2,000 feet above the jungle, the radar sent them about half a million laser pulses.

The evidence served to support the theory developed in previous reports in which it was estimated that approximately 11 million people lived in the Mayan lowlands between 650 and 800 BC.

The experts shared that the discovery shows how ancient peoples have modified the land to cultivate it and have even created road networks to connect the most remote cities.

The results published in the scientific journal Science are part of the largest research to date based on the LIDAR.

The huge megalopolis located under the forest canopy of the northern Peten region includes pyramids, palaces and pavements created by the powerful pre-Columbian civilization.

The discovery suggests that Central America was home to a culture that, at the time, peaked 1500 years, he was more advanced than those present in Greece and China.

The unveiled city could have housed 15 million people with an abundance of walls, defenses and fortresses suggesting that wars were common during their existence and not only towards the end.

"I think it's one of the greatest advances in Mayan archeology of the last 150 years"said Stephen Houston, professor of archeology and anthropology at Brown University, during a dialogue with the BBC at the beginning of the year, when the discovery was reported for the first time time.

"I know it sounds hyperbolic, but when I saw the LIDAR images, my tears flowed" said Houston.

This technology allows aircraft equipped with special scanners to produce three-dimensional maps of the surface using laser signals received by an on-board GPS.

"Now it's not necessary to enter the jungle to see what it's hiding," Marcello Canuto concluded, another of the researchers in charge of the report.