Ancient Maya cities, 'super highways' revealed in high-tech study

[Judi Lynn]

An artist rendering shows a reconstruction of what would have been ancient Maya cities nestled in the area known as the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin (MCKB) of northern Guatemala and southern Campeche, Mexico, after a study using LiDAR laser technology by seven foundations and organizations. Photo: FARES USA/Handout via REUTERS


Today 05:00 am JST

GUATEMALA CITY
A new high-tech study has revealed nearly 1,000 ancient Maya settlements, including 417 previously unknown cites linked by what may be the world's first highway network and hidden for millennia by the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico.

It is the latest discovery of roughly 3,000-year-old Maya centers and related infrastructure, according to a statement on Monday from a team from Guatemala's FARES anthropological research foundation overseeing the so-called LiDAR studies.

The findings were first published last month in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica.

All of the newly-identified structures were built centuries before the largest Maya city-states emerged, ushering in major human achievements in math and writing.

LiDAR technology uses planes to shoot pulses of light into dense forest, allowing researchers to peel away vegetation and map ancient structures below.

More:
https://japantoday.com/category/tech/ancient-maya-cities-'super-highways'-revealed-in-latest-survey

[Judi Lynn]

1. 417 Cities Hidden for Millennia by Dense Jungles

(There's a short but visually interesting video)

By NTD Newsroom
January 20, 2023

- video at link -

A new high-tech study has revealed nearly 1000 ancient Maya settlements, including 417 cities, linked by rewhat may be an ancient highway network. They have been hidden for millennia by the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico.

https://www.ntd.com/417-cities-hidden-for-millennia-by-dense-jungles_896218.html

Bonus video:

Circassian dancers I saw many years ago, couldn't possibly forget them. They were originally Turkish, and were victims of a vicious massacre, with survivors fleeing to the North Caucasus. Their dancers are famous throughout Russia, have been for a very long time. If you look for more of them on YouTube, you'll see the men appear to do a lot of the dancing some of us imagined came from the Russian Cossacks. (I think the style has often been called the "floating dance" done by the women) Their religion has been Islamic among some of them, at least.

Bonus, bonus video, Flamenco dancer from Spain, Macarena Rámirez. Serious Flamenco dance is taught in Cuba, I've discovered online. If you look for more dancing by Macarena Rámirez, you can spend so much time watching video on her, and there are also great male and female Spanish Flamenco artists. One could spend ages watching these amazing dances. The music is wonderful. Beautiful, it hooks you!