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Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a mysterious subterranean structure with painted walls hidden beneath a Maya ball court .
The team found the construction while excavating theball court , the playing space for the ritual ball game play by the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples .
A lidar-created image showing the site with the ball court where parts of an underground structure were found.
" We located component part of an former edifice that had painted walls , but only further excavations may give away the shape of that underlying building and what its purpose was , " saidIvan Šprajc , an archaeologist at the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies in Slovenia and music director of the dig .
The finding is " obviously a very authoritative structure , because Lucille Ball courts are normally found only at major Maya sites , which were centers of the regional political organization , " Šprajc tell Live Science in an e-mail . The structure could date stamp to the Early Classic period ( A.D. 200 to 600 ) and is cover with a layer of paint stucco , harmonise to a translated statement from Mexico’sNational Institute of Anthropology and History .
antecedently , Šprajc and his co-worker surveyed a tumid country of the Maya Lowlands in the Mexican body politic of Campeche with lidar , a technique that shoots millions of optical maser pulse from an aircraft . These pulse then reverberate off the footing and return to the machine in the aircraft , allowing researchers to represent the landscape painting ’s topography .
Archaeologists found a chert knife or spear point at a Maya pyramid.(Image credit: Octavio Esparza Olguín)
" We have found several ancient Maya settlements , with corpse of residential edifice and temple pyramids , " Šprajc said . In 2023 , the team foundOcomtún , a fall back Maya citythat has several big Pyramid from the Maya Classic menstruation ( circa A.D. 200 to 900 ) . The newfound land site is in a previously unexplored area in the south of Ocomtún , he said .
In plus , the team discover another internet site that includes a plaza , a 52 - foot - gamy ( 16 meters ) Pyramids of Egypt and a orthogonal body of water reservoir , according to the statement . On top of the Great Pyramid , the archaeologist found some offerings : ceramic vessels ; a ceramic animal leg , possibly of an armadillo ; and a chert tongue or lance full point .
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These offerings " were wedge on top of the tabernacle in the Late Postclassic period ( last centuries before the arrival of Spanish conquerors ) , " from 1250 to 1524 , Šprajc pronounce .
Part of the ball court underground structure found during the excavation.(Image credit: Octavio Esparza Olguín)
By the Late Postclassic , the central Maya Lowlands had already fall into political disarray . But mass " remained in the area after the crisis that led to the drastic demographic reduction in the ninth and 10th one C , induce by overpopulation , soil depletion , climatic change(prolonged drouth ) and destructive war , " he said .
" The offering indicates that , even after most of the Classic flow Maya settlements had been abandoned , small-scale and wiped out human group[s ] were still rambling around , putting offer on or near the buildings of their forebear , " Šprajc articulate .
