Finding lost cities of the Maya

[Judi Lynn]

Finding lost cities of the Maya

Article created on Friday, August 16, 2013

The discovery of a lost Mayan city named by archaeologists as Chactún in the Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul, Mexico, adds to the nearly 20 major centres so far located by the Archaeological Survey Project in Southeast Campeche, including the city of Uxul.



Searching for cities

Dr. Ivan Sprajc, leader of the survey team, and Nikolai Grube, the project epigraphist, have been working in this archaeologically under-researched area of Mayan culture for 15 years. The work has been supported from its inception in 1996 by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to help slowly fill gaps in the understanding of the ancient Maya.

The study which took place between 1996 and 2007 covered the southern part of the uninhabited Calakmul Biosphere, covering an area of circa 4,000 km2 and a strip zone southeast of Campeche, to the south of the town of Xpujil to the border with Guatemala and the border with Quintana Roo and Belize, measuring between 17 and 35 kilometres wide.

The survey was recently extended to the north, an area that was a key intermediary in the interaction between two regional power centres. It was here in June they discovered Chactún, a city site that covers more than 22 hectares.

Looking south along the hallway of Structure V at Balakbal archaeological Site.

More:
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/08/2013/finding-lost-cities-of-the-maya