Scientists Uncover Ancient Mayan City

G U A T E M A L A   C I T Y, Guatemala, Sept. 8 -- Scientists and looters ignored the ruin for nearly a century because it appeared devoid of temples andburial sites that might yield valuable treasures and artifacts.

They had no idea what they were missing.

Underneath the jungle curtain of mud and dense foliage was asprawling lost city called “Cancuen,” (can-ku-win), one of themost important commercial centers of the Mayan world for more than1,200 years.

Cancuen has been rediscovered by Guatemalan and Americanscientists working deep in the country’s northern jungles. Theybelieve it will take 10 years to fully unearth the city, whichdates to 400 B.C.

Giant Palace and Marketplace

It is buttressed by a 270,000-square-foot Mayan palace. Withthree floors — each 66 feet high — and 170 rooms, it is among themost grandiose Mayan structures ever discovered, the NationalGeographic Society announced today.

The society is a chief sponsor of the Cancuen excavationproject.

“We started off working with what we thought was a smallpalace, part of a small Mayan settlement,” said Arthur Demerest, aVanderbilt University archaeologist and head of the Cancuenproject. “What we found was a palace 20 times as large as we wereexpecting and an important Mayan marketplace that had beenforgotten for almost 100 years.”

Built in the shadow of the hulking palace, the 5-square-milecity featured a crowded rectangular layout of heavy stone walls, 11spacious stone-tiled patios and buildings with cubbyhole-like roomsand thick, multileveled roofs.

While Demerest said scientists aren’t sure how many Mayanmerchants traded in Cancuen, the city is thought to have attractedthousands from nearby highland settlements, including thesprawling, majestic city of Tikal, 85 miles to the northeast.

A Trading Mecca

Cancuen, an ancient Maya word meaning “Place of the Serpent,”became a key trading post because of the sprawling River Passion inwhat is known today as southern Peten, Guatemala’s northernmostprovince, Demerest said.