{"id":356769,"date":"2026-06-26T17:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=356769"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:32:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:02:38","slug":"lost-mayan-city-with-sinister-decapitation-carvings-is-discovered-deep-within-the-mexican-jungle-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/lost-mayan-city-with-sinister-decapitation-carvings-is-discovered-deep-within-the-mexican-jungle-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Mayan city with sinister ‘decapitation’ carvings is discovered deep within the Mexican jungle | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
The stays of Mayan buildings emerging from the jungle at a distant site in Mexico (Picture: Vitan Vujanovi\u0107\/INAH\/Cover Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Mayan city within the Mexican jungle that had remained untouched for greater than a millennium.<\/p>\n

The positioning, covered by thick vegetation within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, has been named Minanb\u00e9 \u2013 which implies \u2018there isn’t a path\u2019 in Yucatec Maya.<\/p>\n

It was discovered by a team of Mexican and Slovenian specialists, led by archaeologist Dr Ivan \u0160prajc who has spent three many years researching the region. <\/p>\n

He has focused on surveying the Central Maya Lowlands, an enormous archaeological landscape that was home to between nine and 11 million people in the course of the Late Classic period between AD 600 and 900.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
A picture from laser scanning technology often called LiDAR shows a site which spans around 15 hectares (Picture: INAH\/Cover Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most recent field season, authorised by Mexico\u2019s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), took researchers into the northern sector of the reserve. <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tJoin for all of the newest stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n

Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The team was investigating an area west of Chact\u00fan, a serious Maya centre first identified by the identical project in 2013, using airborne laser scanning technology often called LiDAR.<\/p>\n

To achieve the positioning, archaeologists and native staff from the community of Constituci\u00f3n cleared a 5km route through the forest with machetes before travelling further by all-terrain vehicles and on foot in intense heat. <\/p>\n

For Dr \u0160prajc, the dearth of old logging tracks \u2013 known locally as alleyways \u2013 proved significant. <\/p>\n

\u2018In comparison with other places where we did surface surveys, access here was way more difficult; nonetheless, within the last three years, that is the primary one we\u2019ve found intact, with no signs of looting. It was a discovery, a fantastic surprise for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
Dr Ivan \u0160prajc has spent three many years exploring the region (Picture: Daniel Santaella\/INAH\/Cover Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He added: \u2018That\u2019s why we selected the name Minanb\u00e9, which comes from Yucatec Maya ( mina\u2019an , \u2018there isn’t a\u2019, and be , \u2018path\u2019). <\/p>\n

\u2018Thus, we follow the tradition in Mayan archaeology of naming some sites based on some characteristic of the place or in allusion to the circumstances of the invention.\u2019<\/p>\n

Using LiDAR data, researchers had initially identified what seemed to be a 15-hectare settlement concealed beneath the forest cover.<\/p>\n

Ground surveys later confirmed the presence of a considerable urban centre featuring plazas, palatial and spiritual structures, terraces and wetlands connected by hydraulic channels.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists Atasta Flores Esquivel, Israel Chato L\u00f3pez, Quint\u00edn Hern\u00e1ndez G\u00f3mez and Vitan Vujanovi\u0107 took part within the reconnaissance work.<\/p>\n

Some of the striking structures is a pyramidal temple standing greater than 13 metres high. <\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
3D models of the discovered altars and stelae were generated from five hundred photographs (Picture: INAH\/Cover Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In response to Vujanovi\u0107, the constructing displays characteristics of the R\u00edo Bec architectural style, including finely crafted masonry, smooth fa\u00e7ade panels, a steep staircase and ornamental mouldings.<\/p>\n

He said: \u2018That is the primary time I actually have recorded a temple that’s roughly well-preserved, and a stela still bearing glyphs.\u2019<\/p>\n

Researchers also identified Stela 1, a monument engraved with a decapitation scene. <\/p>\n

It was the primary monument noticed by the team and forms a part of a set of 14 stelae and altars, several of which contain iconographic imagery and hieroglyphic inscriptions.<\/p>\n

Archaeologist Quint\u00edn Hern\u00e1ndez said the team discovered a line of monuments within the northern section of the positioning. Several positioned on the southern end of a causeway linking the central and north-eastern sectors were cleared for detailed recording.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
One in all the tallest structures, a pyramidal temple exceeding 13 metres in height, exhibits characteristics of the R\u00edo Bec style (Picture: Vitan Vujanovi\u0107\/INAH\/Cover Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using around 500 photographs, researchers created three-dimensional models of every of the 14 monuments. These were analysed by the project\u2019s epigraphist, Octavio Esparza Olgu\u00edn, who used advanced digital imaging techniques to discover key features despite extensive erosion.<\/p>\n

Esparza said a calendrical inscription at the highest of Stela 1 appears to record the date 5 Ajaw, corresponding to AD 849. The monument depicts a figure wielding what appears to be a knife or axe while decapitating one other individual.<\/p>\n

\u2018That is a crucial clue because we will assume that the whole group of monuments, or a few of them, were erected during that period of the Terminal Classic, near the abandonment of the sites within the region, which occurred within the tenth century AD.\u2019<\/p>\n

The team also uncovered several round altars and an oblong altar. Their arrangement suggests some can have been deliberately altered in antiquity.<\/p>\n

One notable example, often called Monument 6, is broken but preserves hieroglyphic cartouches on its sides and a picture of a ruler wearing a feathered headdress, jewellery and ceremonial dress. <\/p>\n

One inscription comprises a part of a Long Count date believed to confer with the late seventh century, potentially making it the oldest recorded monument in the encircling area.<\/p>\n

Dr \u0160prajc said the invention of Minanb\u00e9 supports existing evidence that the region was heavily transformed for agricultural production in the course of the Late Classic Mayan era. <\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Automobile ploughs through crowd of World Cup fans injuring 17<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: England fans who never got here home from Mexico 1986 reunite in USA<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Slovenia\u2019s second city is an uncrowded secret \u2013 and Europe\u2019s newest wine capital<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\tComments<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n
\n
\n

News Updates<\/h4>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with day by day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stays of Mayan buildings emerging from the jungle at a distant site in Mexico (Picture: Vitan Vujanovi\u0107\/INAH\/Cover Media) Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Mayan city within the Mexican jungle that had remained untouched for greater than a millennium. The positioning, covered by thick vegetation within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, has been named Minanb\u00e9 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":356770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[53231,1055,53230,992,731,7784,3516,28877,6377,395,34376,813],"class_list":["post-356769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-carvings","tag-city","tag-decapitation","tag-deep","tag-discovered","tag-jungle","tag-lost","tag-mayan","tag-mexican","tag-news","tag-sinister","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[{"message":"The permalink for this post just changed! This could result in 404 errors for your site visitors.","status":"warning","options":{"id":"0a2ae5f84bc2c0423042ed7ec22d2e40","isDismissible":true,"actions":[{"url":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/wp-admin\/admin.php?page=aioseo-redirects","label":"Add Redirect to improve SEO","class":"aioseo-redirects-slug-changed"}]},"allowedContexts":["posts"]}],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t