Americas

A groundbreaking underwater archaeological mission has confirmed the existence of a submerged Maya settlement beneath the waters of Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands, reframing the site from scattered ritual remains into a once-thriving village now permanently flooded by rising lake levels. The research, carried out in close collaboration with the indigenous Tz'utujil Maya community, has been published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology and represents one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries in Mesoamerica in recent decades. Led by Mexican archaeologist Helena Barba-Meinecke of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the international team included specialists from Belgium, Spain, Argentina, and Guatemala. Their findings reveal that the site, long known informally as Samabaj and, of course, dubbed