Daily Mail

Lasers reveal 3,000-year-old secret Mayan city with more than 6,500 structures

Independent

Student discovers lost Mayan city in Mexico jungle by accident

Newsweek

Hidden Maya City With Pyramids Discovered: 'Government Never Knew About It'

Guardian

Lost Maya city with temple pyramids and plazas discovered in Mexico

A doctoral candidate at the Northern Arizona University has accidentally discovered a long-lost Mayan city — now named Valeriana by archaeologists — in Mexico. The city, now buried under the forest 50 sq. miles off Campeche, is estimated to have flourished between 750 and 850AD.

The Telegraph

Anthropologist Luke Auld-Thomas stumbled onto the find when he revisited a 2013 survey done for a forest monitoring project using the LIDAR remote sensing technology to generate 3D images of the site. Researchers now suggest there may be many more such lost cities to be found.

LIDAR data showed tell-tale signs of a metropolis. Auld-Thomas reported that neither the government nor the scientific community knew about Valeriana, named after a nearby lagoon. Its rediscovery didn't need the use of conventional tools like machetes, binoculars, or spatulas.

Allthatsinteresting

Wired

LIDAR — or light detection and ranging — uses pulsed lasers and other data collected via drone flyovers, potentially revolutionizing archaeological exploration. Six years ago, LIDAR reportedly found tens of thousands of hidden Maya houses, buildings, and pyramids in Guatemala.

All indications are that Valeriana was a populous city with at least 6,764 built up structures and an aggregate settlement density of 55.3 structures per sq km. The findings published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity show that it was around 1.5 times the area of Washington DC.

Reuters

Valeriana, deemed only second in density to Calakmul — reportedly the largest Maya site in ancient Latin America — has pyramids, sports fields, causeways, and amphitheatres. One of its monumental precincts is found to have "all the hallmarks of a Classic Maya political capital."

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Independent #3577

Anthropologist Luke Auld-Thomas stumbled onto the find when he revisited a 2013 survey done for a forest monitoring project using the Lidar remote sensing technology to generate 3D images of the site. Researchers now suggest there may be many more such lost cities to be found.

Guardian #5271

LBC #

Data collected suggest Valeriana was a populous city with at least 6,764 built up structures and an aggregate settlement density of 55.3 structures per sq km. The findings published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity show that it was around 1.5 times the area of Washington DC.

Ancient Mayan City Discovered in Mexican Jungle

Ancient Mayan City Discovered in Mexican Jungle

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Ancient Mayan City Discovered in Mexican Jungle

Ancient Mayan City Discovered in Mexican Jungle

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