Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Mayan city in the Mexican jungle that had remained untouched for more than a millennium. The site, covered by thick vegetation in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, has been named Minanbé – which means 'there is no path' in Yucatec Maya.
It was discovered by a team of Mexican and Slovenian specialists, led by archaeologist Dr Ivan Šprajc who has spent three decades researching the region. He has focused on surveying the Central Maya Lowlands, a vast archaeological landscape that was home to between nine and 11 million people during the Late Classic period between AD 600 and 900.
Discovery using LiDAR technology
The latest field season, authorised by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), took researchers into the northern sector of the reserve. The team was investigating an area west of Chactún, a major Maya centre first identified by the same project in 2013, using airborne laser scanning technology known as LiDAR.
To reach the site, archaeologists and local workers from the community of Constitución cleared a 5km route through the forest with machetes before travelling further by all-terrain vehicles and on foot in intense heat. For Dr Šprajc, the lack of old logging tracks – known locally as alleyways – proved significant.
'Compared to other places where we did surface surveys, access here was much more difficult; however, in the last three years, this is the first one we've found intact, with no signs of looting. It was a discovery, a great surprise for us,' he said. He added: 'That's why we chose the name Minanbé, which comes from Yucatec Maya (mina'an, 'there is no', and be, 'path'). Thus, we follow the tradition in Mayan archaeology of naming some sites according to some characteristic of the place or in allusion to the circumstances of the discovery.'
Structures and monumental architecture
Using LiDAR data, researchers had initially identified what appeared to be a 15-hectare settlement concealed beneath the forest canopy. Ground surveys later confirmed the presence of a substantial urban centre featuring plazas, palatial and religious structures, terraces and wetlands connected by hydraulic channels. Archaeologists Atasta Flores Esquivel, Israel Chato López, Quintín Hernández Gómez and Vitan Vujanović took part in the reconnaissance work.
One of the most striking structures is a pyramidal temple standing more than 13 metres high. According to Vujanović, the building displays characteristics of the Río Bec architectural style, including finely crafted masonry, smooth façade panels, a steep staircase and decorative mouldings. He said: 'This is the first time I have recorded a temple that is more or less well-preserved, and a stela still bearing glyphs.'
Decapitation stela and inscriptions
Researchers also identified Stela 1, a monument engraved with a decapitation scene. It was the first monument noticed by the team and forms part of a collection of 14 stelae and altars, several of which contain iconographic imagery and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Archaeologist Quintín Hernández said the team discovered a line of monuments in the northern section of the site. Several located at the southern end of a causeway linking the central and north-eastern sectors were cleared for detailed recording.
Using around 500 photographs, researchers created three-dimensional models of each of the 14 monuments. These were analysed by the project's epigraphist, Octavio Esparza Olguín, who used advanced digital imaging techniques to identify key features despite extensive erosion. Esparza said a calendrical inscription at the top 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 another individual.
'This is an important clue because we can assume that the entire group of monuments, or some of them, were erected during that period of the Terminal Classic, close to the abandonment of the sites in the region, which occurred in the 10th century AD,' Esparza said.
Other monuments and historical significance
The team also uncovered several round altars and a rectangular altar. Their arrangement suggests some may have been deliberately altered in antiquity. One notable example, known as Monument 6, is broken but preserves hieroglyphic cartouches on its sides and an image of a ruler wearing a feathered headdress, jewellery and ceremonial dress. One inscription contains part of a Long Count date believed to refer to the late seventh century, potentially making it the oldest recorded monument in the surrounding area.
Dr Šprajc said the discovery of Minanbé supports existing evidence that the region was heavily transformed for agricultural production during the Late Classic Mayan era.
