Key Points
The larger of Valeriana's two monumental precincts has all the hallmarks of a classic Mayan political capital: enclosed plazas connected by a broad causeway; temple pyramids; a ball court; a reservoir formed by damming an arroyo (a seasonal watercourse); and a probable E-Group assemblage, an architectural arrangement that generally indicates a founding date prior to AD 150, says the study, published in the journal Antiquity...
Auld-Thomas and his fellow researchers have succeeded in mapping the city beneath the jungle thanks to airborne laser scanning, better known as lidar (light detection and ranging), a remote-sensing technique that uses pulsed lasers and other data collected through flyovers that can generate accurate three-dimensional models of surface features, revolutionizing the way archaeologists explore the hidden past...
The study mentions that the analysis of 6,764 structures in the lidar data blocks reveals a settlement density of 55.3 structures per square kilometer, comparable to other research in the region..
Settlement density data, ranging from 49 to 61 structures per square kilometer, indicate that cities and dense settlements are common in large parts of the central Maya lowlands..
According to the study, some researchers argue that the discovered landscapes reflect a high population density, while others suggest that the surveys are biased and overrepresent the most densely populated areas..
