It's been a month since I last blogged. Mea culpa! And when I do, lately, it seems to be when I learn a new fascinating or appealing fact, or blunder onto a new topic I want to know more about. Well, today I stumbled on a discovery from 2024. A graduate student was curious about some LIDAR (a type of laser) data on the Yucatan Peninsula. The data wasn't collected for archaeology but this research team decided to study it with that purpose. (It's cool when people share data freely and see how others might use it, kind of like back when computer dabblers were less proprietary and voila, The Mac.)  

Anyway, the archaeology PhD student examined the data and discovered ancient buildings no one knew about (or no one who counts—I bet some locals knew) from more than a thousand years ago, hidden under a dense jungle canopy. Scientists named this newly discovered Mayan city Valeriana after a nearby freshwater lagoon.

They’ve surveyed the 50 square mile area, revealing more than 6,000 structures. “This was a hilly landscape” said Marcello Canuto, a member of the study team. He paints a splendid picture, “On top of these hills are large temples and pyramids, All around would have been small settlements. The landscape would be a mosaic of forest patches, agriculture, roads and trails.” Interestingly a thousand years ago is the same time period of Braided Dimensions.

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