Mexico: Archaeologists uncover 1,500-year-old Mayan city

[Judi Lynn]

2. Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan city at Mexico construction site

Researchers estimate the city, which features the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, to have been occupied from AD600 to 900



A white stone structure has walls on three sides and columns across the front with jars set into a section of the wall.
The ruins of a Mayan site, called Xiol, have been uncovered on a construction site near Mérida, Mexico. Photograph: Lorenzo Hernandez/Reuters

Reuters in Kanasin
Fri 27 May 2022 14.59 EDT

Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas on a construction site of what will become an industrial park near Mérida, on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

The site, called Xiol, has features of the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, archaeologists said, which is common in the southern Yucatán peninsula but rare near Mérida.

“We think more than 4,000 people lived around here,” said Carlos Peraza, one of the archaeologists who led the excavation of the city, estimated to have been occupied from 600 to 900 AD.

“There were people from different social classes … priests, scribes, who lived in these great palaces, and there were also the common people who lived in small buildings,” Peraza said.



Vases, pots and tools were discovered at Xiol, an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas. Photograph: Lorenzo Hernandez/Reuters

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/27/mexico-mayan-city-xiol-discovered