
Forgotten Mayan city 'discovered' in Central America by 15-year-old boy - jackgavigan
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/forgotten-mayan-city-discovered-in-central-america-by-15-year-old-a7021291.html
======
excitom
This was news yesterday on Reddit, and was debunked.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/4iib55/you_prob...](https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/4iib55/you_probably_didnt_find_a_lost_maya_city_the_post/)

~~~
ljf
This-

 _...the idea that city placement corresponds to cosmology on that scale
implies a top down plan that we frankly know didn 't exist. Maya cities have
different origins. Some were occupied going back to the Formative/Preclassic
period. Others were founded later. All were ruled by their own political
dynasties that did not typically coordinate with each other. The entire
Classic Maya civilization was dominated by an elite culture composed of
feuding lineages that were constantly seeking to one-up their rivals through
warfare and competitive festivals. So while we have lots of evidence for
cosmically-informed planning within cities, there are few examples of that
between cities. To suggest that such a cosmic order existed across the entire
Maya lowlands would require rejecting mountains of evidence demonstrating the
opposite.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that this kid is doing satellite-
based remote sensing surveys at 15. I think it's awesome that he found some
ruins through that, regardless of whether anybody already knew about it. But
lets not blow this whole thing out of proportion._

------
MIKarlsen
Great find, although I can't quite grasp why "discovered" is in quotation
marks. The cities hadn't been investigated before, although some of them might
not be actual cities anymore.

~~~
jguimont
I think there was no "boots on the ground" confirmation yet.

