Scientists detect traces of an ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico using laser-sensor technology

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Archaeologists using laser-sensing technology have detected what may be an ancient Mayan city cloaked by jungle in southern Mexico. The lost city, dubbed Valeriana, may have been as densely settled as the better-known pre-Hispanic metropolis of Calakmul, to the south. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology said about 6,479 structures have been detected in the LIDAR images covering an area of about 47 square miles (122 square kilometers). A consortium of researchers made the discovery by using software to re-examine a 2013 LIDAR survey originally carried out to measures deforestation. What the study, published this week in the journal Antiquity, suggest is that much of the empty space between known Maya sites may once have been very heavily populated.