[HN Gopher] Ancient Maya city discovered in Mexican jungle
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       Ancient Maya city discovered in Mexican jungle
        
       Author : benbreen
       Score  : 121 points
       Date   : 2023-06-22 13:01 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | ghaff wrote:
       | Another major archaeological site on the Yucatan peninsula, Coba,
       | was discovered in the 19th century but was sufficiently remote
       | that it wasn't excavated in earnest until the 1970s when a road
       | was put in.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | UberFly wrote:
       | I often reflect on the massive amount of stuff that is constantly
       | falling out of the trees on my property, and then wonder just how
       | deep places like this must be buried with a jungle growing on top
       | of them for 1000 years.
        
         | culi wrote:
         | Tropical trees are rarely deciduous and jungles like the Amazon
         | often experience significant monsoon seasons which wash away a
         | lot of topsoil. In fact a surprisingly significant part of the
         | Amazon's minerals come from the Saharan dust storms that make
         | it across the ocean
        
           | galaxyLogic wrote:
           | So Sahara is good for something after all
        
             | civilitty wrote:
             | It's a one of the biggest sources of trace micronutrients
             | in the world. The 800 million metric tons of mineral dust a
             | year that it produces feeds a ton of ecosystems:
             | Amazon rainforest: phosphorus feeds plants
             | Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico: iron feeds plankton
             | Atlantic ocean: iron feeds plankton         Southern
             | Europe: phosphorus feeds plants         Mediterranean: iron
             | feeds plankton         Sahel: phosphorus and iron feed
             | plants         Florida everglades: phosphorus feeds plants
             | Andean cloud forest: phosphorus feeds plants
        
         | el_nahual wrote:
         | Not as much as you'd think! In many places in the yucatan
         | peninsula topsoil is only a few inches deep; it's not rare to
         | see _no_ topsoil at all! The limestone bedrock is exposed to
         | air.
         | 
         | Most mayan ruins have vast sections that are un-execavated, and
         | you can just _see_ the shape of walls /buildings/roads under
         | the plants and foliage.
         | 
         | In the words of Fray Diego de Landa, a spanish bishop (and
         | monster) that was in charge of the church in Yucatan in the
         | 16th century:
         | 
         |  _Yucatan es una tierra la de menos tierra que yo he visto_
         | 
         | ("Yucatan is a land with the least amount of land I've ever
         | seen", where in spanish "tierra" means both "land" and
         | "dirt/soil")
        
           | bedobi wrote:
           | > Yucatan es una tierra la de menos tierra que yo he visto
           | 
           | complete side note but is that what he would have said
           | verbatim or a rendition in modern Spanish? super curious
        
             | neodypsis wrote:
             | Doesn't sound like modern Spanish
        
       | evtothedev wrote:
       | If you like this sort of news, I strongly recommend the Ancient
       | Beat Substack[1]. It's worth paying for, and it's something I
       | genuinely look forward to every Friday.
       | 
       | [1] https://ancientbeat.substack.com/
        
       | earthboundkid wrote:
       | Now that we can read Mayan inscriptions, this could lead to some
       | interesting new material for scholars.
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | Now? Haven't we been able to read Mayan for quite a long time?
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-22 23:01 UTC)