Centuries after being swallowed by the dense jungle canopy of southeastern Mexico, a vast and significant ancient Mayan city has been rediscovered. Archaeologists have announced the remarkable finding of Valeriana, a sprawling urban center boasting pyramids, sports arenas, intricate causeways, and amphitheatres, located in the state of Campeche. This incredible discovery sheds new light on the complexity and density of Mayan civilization in ancient Mexico.
The lost city was brought to light not through traditional ground expeditions, but through the innovative use of Lidar technology. This remote sensing method, which employs laser pulses to map terrain beneath thick vegetation, allowed researchers to penetrate the jungle’s veil and reveal the hidden structures beneath. What makes this discovery even more astonishing is its accidental nature. During a routine online data search, a sharp-eyed PhD student stumbled upon the Lidar survey data, setting in motion the unveiling of Valeriana.
Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD candidate at Tulane University, recounted his serendipitous find: “I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring.” Processing this data with archaeological techniques, Auld-Thomas recognized patterns that others had overlooked – the unmistakable signs of a major ancient Mayan city. Valeriana is now believed to be second only to Calakmul in building density, considered to be one of the largest and most powerful ancient Mayan cities. This places Valeriana among the most significant Mayan discoveries in recent history.
The scale of Valeriana is impressive. Experts estimate that at its peak, between 750 and 850 AD, the city may have housed between 30,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. This population size surpasses that of the region today, underscoring the advanced urbanization of the ancient Maya. Named Valeriana after a nearby lagoon, the city’s rediscovery challenges long-held Western perspectives that viewed tropical regions as detrimental to the flourishing of complex civilizations. Professor Marcello Canuto, a key researcher in the project, emphasizes that this region was, in fact, a cradle of rich and sophisticated cultures.
A towering Mayan pyramid at Calakmul, a site similar to the newly discovered ancient Mayan city Valeriana in Campeche, Mexico, showcasing the impressive architecture of ancient Mayan cities.
While Valeriana itself remains unexcavated and unphotographed directly, researchers indicate it shares architectural similarities with Calakmul, which is located approximately 100km away. Valeriana exhibits all the characteristics of a major urban center, potentially even a capital city. Remarkably, this lost ancient Mayan city was, in a sense, hiding in plain sight. It is situated a mere 15-minute walk from a major road near Xpujil, a present-day town largely inhabited by Maya people. Though locals may have sensed the presence of ruins beneath the overgrown mounds, the city’s full extent remained unknown until now.
Covering an area of approximately 16.6 square kilometers, Valeriana consisted of two major centers, spaced about 2 kilometers apart, interconnected by residential areas and causeways. Within these centers, archaeologists identified two plazas adorned with temple pyramids – the sacred spaces where the ancient Maya practiced their religious ceremonies, offered treasures like jade masks, and погребены their deceased. The city also featured a ball court, evidence of the ritualistic ball games played throughout Mesoamerica. Furthermore, the discovery of a reservoir points to sophisticated water management systems crucial for sustaining a large population in this ancient Mayan city.
Across three surveyed sites in the region, the research team documented an astounding 6,764 buildings of varying sizes, highlighting the densely populated nature of this ancient Mayan landscape. Professor Elizabeth Graham from University College London, commenting on the research, emphasizes that these findings reinforce the understanding that the Maya lived in complex urban settlements, rather than isolated villages, fundamentally altering previous perceptions of Mayan societal structure. “The point is that the landscape is definitely settled – that is, settled in the past – and not, as it appears to the naked eye, uninhabited or ‘wild’,” she stated.
An illustration showing a map of Valeriana and its location in Mexico.
Map illustrating the location of Valeriana, a recently discovered ancient Mayan city, within the Campeche region of Mexico, revealing its place in the geography of ancient Mayan civilization.
The research also offers insights into the factors that may have contributed to the decline of Mayan civilization starting around 800 AD. The evidence suggests that the very density of population, which had been a hallmark of Mayan success, may have become a vulnerability when faced with environmental challenges, particularly climate change and drought. Mr. Auld-Thomas suggests, “It’s suggesting that the landscape was just completely full of people at the onset of drought conditions and it didn’t have a lot of flexibility left. And so maybe the entire system basically unravelled as people moved farther away.” In addition to environmental factors, warfare and the Spanish conquest in the 16th century further contributed to the disruption of Mayan city-states.
Getty Images Majestic Mayan Pyramid 1 at Calakmul rises above the breathtaking Jungle Canopy for as far as the eye can see on a beautiful day in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche Mexico
Panoramic view of a majestic Mayan pyramid at Calakmul rising above the jungle canopy in Campeche, Mexico, exemplifying the landscape where the ancient Mayan city of Valeriana was discovered using Lidar technology.
The successful discovery of Valeriana underscores the transformative impact of Lidar technology on archaeology, especially in regions shrouded in dense vegetation like the tropics. Professor Canuto explains that Lidar has revolutionized their field, allowing them to survey vast areas in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods. In the decade since its introduction to Mesoamerican archaeology, Lidar has mapped approximately ten times the area that had been covered by archaeologists in the preceding century.
Luke Auld-Thomas’s groundbreaking work strongly implies that countless more undiscovered ancient Mayan cities and sites remain hidden beneath the jungles of Mexico and Central America. The sheer number of sites now being revealed through Lidar presents a new challenge: prioritizing and managing archaeological research. While Auld-Thomas expresses a personal desire to visit Valeriana, the overwhelming scale of discoveries means that not every site can be immediately investigated. “One of the downsides of discovering lots of new Maya cities in the era of Lidar is that there are more of them than we can ever hope to study,” he concludes. The research detailing the discovery of Valeriana has been published in the academic journal Antiquity, marking a significant contribution to our understanding of ancient Mayan civilization and the pre-Columbian history of Mexico.
Further Reading:
- Huge ancient city found in the Amazon
- Egypt unearths 3,000-year-old ‘lost golden city’
- Lost Silk Road cities discovered in Uzbek mountains
Source: Adapted from BBC News report.
