6 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Lidar Technology Reveals a 3,000-year-old Secret Mayan City with Full of Pyramids and Plazas

Tulane University researchers used laser-guided imaging to uncover vast unexplored Maya settlements in Campeche, Mexico, revealing more than 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures, including a previously unknown large city with stone pyramids.

The ability to examine large regions from the comfort of a laboratory thanks to Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) technology has revolutionized the way archaic researchers study ancient civilizations in recent years.

The research project, led by doctoral student Luke Auld-Thomas alongside his advisor, Professor Marcello A. Canuto, both affiliated with Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute (MARI), used Lidar technology to study an area of 130 square kilometers in Campeche.

As part of a “non-archaeological” survey, the 50-square-mile area was mapped in 2013 using lidar, a remote-sensing technology, according to a study published today in the journal Antiquity. Examining this “found” dataset, the researchers discovered the ancient city concealed in plain sight in a region teeming with Maya settlements. They found evidence of over 6,500 structures in all.

The research focuses on a part of Campeche that had previously been overlooked in traditional archaeological research.

The core of the Valeriana site contained a ballcourt and an architectural arrangement that indicated a construction date before 150 C.E. Image credit: Antiquity/ L. Auld-Thomas et al.
The core of the Valeriana site contained a ballcourt and an architectural arrangement that indicated a construction date before 150 C.E. Image credit: Antiquity/ L. Auld-Thomas et al.

“The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it,” says lead author Luke Auld-Thomas, an archaeologist at Tulane University, in a statement.

Researchers found not only rural areas and small communities but also a large city with pyramids, close to the only road in the area, near a village where farmers have been working among the ruins without the government or scientific community being previously aware of its existence.

The larger of the two “monumental precincts” that comprised the city “has all the hallmarks of a Classic Maya political capital,” according to the researchers. It included temple pyramids, a freshwater reservoir, several enclosed plazas that were connected, and a ball court where the Maya played games with rubber balls.

According to the study, Valeriana’s architectural layout indicates that some of the town was constructed before 150 C.E. It thrived during the Classic era, which roughly spanned 250–900 C.E. and was the Maya Empire’s golden age.

This discovery is particularly striking, as it underscores how much remains unknown about the Maya and that there is still much to uncover.

An annotated scan of Valeriana shows ruined platforms in purple and other ruined structures in black. Image credit: Antiquity/ L. Auld-Thomas et al.
An annotated scan of Valeriana shows ruined platforms in purple and other ruined structures in black. Image credit: Antiquity/ L. Auld-Thomas et al.

The researchers intend to visit Valeriana and the surrounding settlements in person to learn more about the ancient rural population of the Maya lowlands.

This study not only reveals previously unknown cities, but it also contributes to ongoing debates about the true extent of Maya settlements and their population density.

It has been contended, that prior research has mostly concentrated on sizable, well-known locations like Tikal, which may have skewed impressions of the Maya lowlands. According to some critics, the majority of the Maya region may have been rural, with big settlements being the exception rather than the rule. This perspective is called into question by the discoveries made in Campeche, which demonstrate how the Maya civilization created a network of communities in a vast tropical environment that varied in size and complexity.

“Lidar is teaching us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities over their tropical landscape,” Canuto said. “While some areas are replete with vast agricultural patches and dense populations, others have only small communities. Nonetheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya changed their environment to support a long-lived complex society.”

Tulane University

doi:10.15184/aqy.2024.148

Cover Photo by Marcello Canuto

Related Articles

Ancient Greeks Built a Road to Haul Cargo Overland: The Father of the Railway: Diolkos

6 May 2024

6 May 2024

The Diolkos, an ambitious road that crossed the entire Isthmus of Corinth and was partially paved with stone, was built...

A previously unknown subterranean tract of an Augustan-era aqueduct has been rediscovered in Naples

4 February 2023

4 February 2023

A previously unknown subterranean tract nearly half a mile long of an Augustan-era aqueduct has been rediscovered in Naples, southern...

7500-year-old idol of Goddess Asherah located in Israel

22 May 2022

22 May 2022

Archaeologists excavating an ancient cemetery in Israel have discovered an idol they believe belongs to the goddess Ashera at a...

Rare Piece Of Metal Armor Found At 17th-Century Fort In Maryland

1 March 2024

1 March 2024

A piece of body armor was unearthed during excavations at a 17th-century colonial fort in Maryland, a Mid-Atlantic state of...

60 Elongated Structures of Unknown Function and Neolithic Silos Discovered in France

12 October 2024

12 October 2024

The Pfulgriesheim site, located in northeastern France’s Alsace region, underwent extensive archaeological research before being developed as a new urban...

The “Horoscope” Scroll Found In the Judean Desert: A Glimpse Into the Mysterious Sect

26 March 2024

26 March 2024

One of the most interesting and mysterious scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert is a scroll called the “Horoscope.” This...

Madagascar’s Enigmatic Rock-Cut Architecture may have been of Zoroastrian origin

13 September 2024

13 September 2024

An international team of researchers found an enigmatic rock-cut architecture at Teniky, a site in the remote Isalo Massif in...

New study says earliest recorded kiss occurred 4500 years ago in Mesopotamia

18 May 2023

18 May 2023

The University of Copenhagen according to researchers, humanity’s earliest recorded kiss occurred around 4,500 years ago in the ancient Middle...

Oldest Aboriginal pottery discovered in Far North Queensland

10 April 2024

10 April 2024

More than 2000 years ago, Aboriginal Australians were producing ceramics on a secluded island about 35 kilometers off the coast...

Roman influence period artifacts discovered by history enthusiasts in northern Poland

16 March 2024

16 March 2024

Local history enthusiasts from the Wendrusz Historical and Exploration Society have discovered four fibulae, a ring, and fragments of decorations...

A Lynx Buried with Four Big Dogs in an Ancient Roman Well in Hungary

17 April 2024

17 April 2024

Archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of an adult male lynx accompanied by four big dogs in a Roman-era pit in...

Saudi shipwreck excavation reveals hundreds of 18th-century artifacts on sunken ship in the north Red Sea

25 February 2022

25 February 2022

Divers from Saudi Arabia’s Heritage Authority have discovered a shipwreck in the Red Sea from the 18th century filled with...

New Archaeological Discoveries in Abu Dhabi shed light on Umm an-Nar Bronze Age culture (2700-2000 BCE)

1 February 2024

1 February 2024

New findings demonstrate the resilience and inventiveness of local Bronze Age societies (Umm an-Nar Bronze Age culture), as well as...

In Fraueninsel in Lake Chiemsee: Romanesque a central building hidden underground for 1,000 years discovered

25 February 2024

25 February 2024

On Fraueninsel, an island in Germany’s Lake Chiemsee, archaeologists discovered a cult site that may have been slumbering underground for...

Ancient tomb discovered under parking lot greenery in Japan

16 September 2023

16 September 2023

Shrubbery intended to illuminate a corner of a nondescript parking lot in Japan’s Nara prefecture turned out to be hiding...