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Pyramid Kukulkan, Chichén Itza, Mexico, Maya archeological site.      Source: IRStone / Adobe Stock

Chichén Itzá is At least 400 Years Older Than Believed

The world-famous ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá, with its sprawling ruins shadowed by its steep iconic pyramid was founded at least 400 years earlier than previously thought. Dr Guillermo de Anda...
Ek Balam Maya Archeological Site. Maya Ruins, Yucatan Peninsula. Credit: bobiphil / Adobe Stock

Mexico Wants to Run a Tourist Train Through its Maya Heartland — Should It?

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a dream for the Yucatan Peninsula. He wants to build a train that will leverage the tourism economy of Cancun by bringing more visitors inland to the...
A diver holds the skull of an ancient bear known as an Arctotherium. It is one of the species of “prehistoric monsters” found in an underwater Yucatan cave.

Fossils of Giant Prehistoric Beasts Discovered in Underwater Ice Age Death Cave

More than 10,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age ended, vast sheets of ice receded, scarring and causing massive cracks to appear on the bridge between North and South America. At that time, the land...
Maya artifacts found in Yucatan cave

Artifacts Found In Rediscovered Sacred Cave Could Change Our Understanding of the Maya

The National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico has announced a remarkable discovery that will provide new insights into the Maya . Experts found a sacred cave where rituals were...
The grand pyramid of the Maya at Uxmal

The Spectacular Ancient Maya City of Uxmal

The ancient Maya city of Uxmal is located in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It was one of the regional capitals during the Maya Late Classical period and is considered today to be one of the most...
Reconstructed face of Eva of Naharon, who would have lived about 13,600 years ago.

Putting a Face to Eva of Naharon, The Oldest Human Relic Found in the Americas

Eva of Naharon, also known as the Woman of Naharon, is the name given to the oldest known human remains found in the Americas to date. She met her demise in a cenote (sinkhole) some 13,600 years ago...
Hand prints, animals and human forms found in Yucatan cave. Source: Sergio Grosjean / Youtube Screenshot

Uncertain Origins of Ancient Cave Paintings Found in the Yucatan Peninsula

A major discovery has been reported by archaeologists in the Yucatan Peninsula, in south-eastern Mexico. A team of experts has discovered some astonishing cave paintings deep in a remote jungle. The...
The Temple of Kukulkan, Mayapan.

An Ancient Maya City Founded by a God and Conquered by a Death Cheating Despot

Mayapan is a Maya site located in the modern Mexican state of Yucatan , about 55 km (34 miles) to the southeast of Merida, the state’s capital. This reconstruction of the site’s history poses a...
The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica) is a subspecies of Western honey bee.

After 2000 Years of Harmony, the Maya May Soon Lose their Stingless Bee Pets

For several years now, reports have circulated about the worrisome decline of the population of bees. Periodically, newspaper headlines lament the bees’ disappearance as an irreversible tipping point...
Yaxchilan contains hundreds of ancient structures, a labyrinth, tunnels, chabmers. What secrets do they keep? (Photo: ©Marco M. Vigato)

The House of Darkness & Secret Caverns—The legendary Yucatan Hall of Records found at Yaxchilan? Part II

Far from the crowds of Palenque and other Maya sites, the ruins of Yaxchilan are found today still very much in the same conditions as they were first described by Maudslay and Maler in the early...
Caves of Loltun, Mexico

Loltun Cave Art and Precious Clues to the Lost Mayan Civilization

There is a kid’s poem written by Jean Marzollo that begins: “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” It goes on speak about the challenges and wonders of Columbus’s voyage to...
Chicanná: Enter the Maya House of the Serpent Mouth

Chicanna: Enter the Maya House of the Serpent Mouth

A menacing serpent-like monster glares down at you as you cross the plaza of Chicanná in Mexico. While it is certainly an unnerving thought, you decide to step inside the gaping serpent’s mouth...
Prehistoric human skeleton in the Chan Hol Cave near Tulúm on the Yucatán peninsula prior to looting by unknown cave divers.

Skeleton Stalagmite Reveals Human Inhabitants in Mexico At Least 13,000 Years Ago

A prehistoric human skeleton found on the Yucatán Peninsula is at least 13,000 years old and most likely dates from a glacial period at the end of the most recent ice age, the late Pleistocene. A...
Statue of the God Chac-Mool, located inside a chamber in the pyramid of Kukulcán in Chichén Itzá, Mexico

A Rogue Archaeologist, Atlantis, and the Chac-Mool

In the late 1890s, as America was developing into an industrial heavyweight, its scientists and explorers were rediscovering Earth’s ancient past and charting forgotten civilizations around our...
The girl’s skull was found along with most of her skeleton deep in a cave now inundated with water on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

Bones of a Teenage Mother Who Died 12,000 Years Ago Tell Researchers a Dark Story of Carnivores and Malnutrition

One of the earliest known people to live in the Americas, a girl dubbed Naia who roamed the Yucatan Peninsula about 12,000 years ago, was slender and short and endured hardship, childbirth, and death...
Pre-Columbian Murals and Norse Sagas Suggest Vikings Met the Aztecs, and the Outcome Was Not Pretty

Pre-Columbian Murals and Norse Sagas Suggest Vikings Met the Aztecs, and the Outcome Was Not Pretty

Did the Vikings visit Pre-Columbian Mexico? The depiction of white people on Chichen Itza murals in the Temple of the Warriors probably represent Vikings - the major European navigators around the...
Original pyramid found underneath two outer pyramids at Chichen Itza in Yucatan

Original pyramid found underneath two outer pyramids at Chichen Itza in Yucatan

A pyramid within a pyramid within a pyramid: That’s what archaeologists said they have found at the ancient Maya site of Chichén Itza in the Yucatàn Peninsula in the far south of Mexico...
Inset; Bucket/ banduddû from the north wall of the Palace of king Sargon II, and a four-winged genie in the Bucket and cone motif.

Banduddu: Solving the Mystery of the Babylonian Container

One of the great riddles in Mesopotamian sacred art concerns the image of anthropomorphic winged figures called Apkallu holding a mullilu (tree fruit) in one hand, and a banduddû — a container — in...
Teen Makes Stellar Discovery of Previously Unknown Maya City

Teen Makes Stellar Discovery of Previously Unknown Maya City

William Gadoury, a 15 year-old Canadian from Quebec, has revolutionized the academic world by using ingenious reasoning to discover a previously unknown Maya city. Based on his own theory - that the...
Artistic representation of a meteorite striking the Earth.

Studies Begin on a Crater That May Explain the Dinosaur Extinction 65 Million Years Ago

Around 65 million years ago there was a mass extinction of dinosaurs. In addition, plankton, the base of the ocean food chain, was greatly affected. Many families of brachiopods and sponges...
As the Bulldozers Continue, Will the Recently Discovered Ruins of a Byzantine Church Be Lost Forever?

As the Bulldozers Continue, Will the Recently Discovered Ruins of a Byzantine Church Be Lost Forever?

During the preparatory works to build a shopping center in Gaza (Palestine), a group of workers discovered ancient ruins. Archaeologists have identified them as possible parts of a Byzantine church...
Children learning math, Yucatan, Mexico

Yucatan Children Learn Math Better Thanks to Ancient Mayan Numeral System

Children of the Mexican Yucatan region are getting much better results in mathematics by learning using the ancient Mayan numeral system. Studies suggest that the results are far exceeding those...
Ancient Mayan Altars in Guatemala

Ancient Mayan Altars, Sculpted Artwork Discovered in Guatemala

Archaeologists in Guatemala have unearthed an ancient Mayan council house containing altars, incense burners and sculpted images of animals, according to a report in Live Science . The finding is...
Ancient Maya Ball Court

Archaeologists uncover ancient Maya ball court used as a ritual centre

Workers were constructing a school’s basketball court in the municipality of Maxcanu in the Yucatan region of Mexico when they stumbled upon an ancient ball game court which was used as a ritual...

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