A team of archaeologists has found an underground structure beneath a field where Mesamerican people played ball game. The same team discovered a lost Maya city last year, which they named Ocomtun, featuring several pyramids from the Classic Maya period (200-900 AD). The new excavation site is located in an unexplored area south of Ocomtun.
In Campeche, Mexico, an underground structure with painted walls was found to have belonged to the Mayans. The discovery was made while a team of archaeologists excavated a field where Mesamerican people played soccer.
Precisely, the team found the subterranean building beneath the playing field and is set to excavate further to learn more details soon. So far, it is estimated that the structure could date back to the Early Classic period (200-600 AD).
“New excavations may reveal the shape of this underlying building and what its function was,” explained Ivan Šprajc, archaeologist from the Slovenian Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies and director of the excavation, in statements to media.
According to researchers, it would be an important structure since ball game fields of the Mayans are mainly found in large cities that served as regional political organization centers.
The same team discovered a lost Maya city last year, which they named Ocomtun, featuring several pyramids from the Classic Maya period. The new site is located in an unexplored area south of Ocomtun.
Researchers have also found ceramic vessels; a ceramic animal leg, possibly belonging to an armadillo; and a flint knife or lance point. These elements would be offerings deposited on the temple during the Late Postclassic period, last centuries before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors between 1250-1524.
“These offerings indicate that even after most Maya settlements from the Classic period had been abandoned, small and impoverished human groups continued to roam, placing offerings on or near the buildings of their ancestors,” indicated Šprajc in Live Science.
Source: El Espectador
