Impressive Water Purifcation System Found at Ancient Maya City
Last edited Fri Oct 23, 2020, 07:19 AM - Edit history (1)
.By Ross Pomeroy - RCP Staff
By Ross Pomeroy - RCP StaffOctober 23, 2020
More than 2,000 years ago in the ancient city of Tikal in northern Guatemala, Maya people apparently utilized a mineral called zeolite to purify their drinking water. The discovery, published in the journal Scientific Reports by anthropologists from the University of Cincinnati, represents the oldest known example of water purification in the Western Hemisphere.
Enduring for more than a millennium, Tikal was an impressive metropolis. For much of its history, extending from roughly 400 BC to 900 AD, it had thousands of structures and was home to tens of thousands of inhabitants. Key to maintaining that population was clean drinking water, but that wasn't always easy to come by.
"Given the area is subject to extreme seasonal droughts, a large population, and long-term occupation, the drinking water of Tikal was prone to contamination from a plethora of microbial sources and leachates from toxic minerals such as cinnabar," the researchers wrote.
To remedy that contamination, the Maya at Tikal apparently outfitted one of their largest reservoirs (pictured top), called Corriental, which was capable of holding 58,000,000 liters of water, with a complex filtration system.
More:
https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2020/10/23/impressive_water_purifcation_system_found_at_ancient_maya_city.html
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