<
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/12/apocalypse-no-how-almost-everything-we-thought-we-knew-about-the-maya-is-wrong>
"As a seven-year-old, Francisco Estrada-Belli was afraid all of history would
have been discovered by the time he was old enough to contribute. The year was
1970 and he and his parents had come from Rome to visit relatives in the
Central American country of Guatemala. On the trip, they visited the ancient
Maya ruins at Tikal. “I was completely mesmerised,” Estrada-Belli told me
recently. “It was jungle everywhere, there were animals, and then these
enormous, majestic temples. I asked questions but felt the answers were not
good enough. I decided there and then that I wanted to be answering them.”
Fifty-five years later, Estrada-Belli is now one of the archaeologists helping
to rewrite the history of the Maya peoples who built Tikal. Thanks to
technological advances, we are entering a new age of discovery in the field of
ancient history. Improved DNA analysis, advances in plant and climate science,
soil and isotope chemistry, linguistics and other techniques such as a laser
mapping technology called Lidar, are overturning long-held beliefs. Nowhere is
this more true than when it comes to Maya archaeology."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
