The city encompasses two “monumental precincts” about a mile away from each other. They are linked by continuous dense settlement patterns and signs of landscape engineering. The larger of the precincts appeared to be a Classic Maya political capital in every way.
It contained numerous enclosed plazas connected by a broad causeway, a ball court where the Maya played games with rubber balls, temple pyramids, and a freshwater reservoir that was formed by damming a dry creek bed that fills with water after heavy rainfall or flash floods.
The available evidence suggests that the settled area within the city may even extend beyond the space covered by the lidar survey.
“The discovery of Valeriana highlights the fact that there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the existence or absence of large sites within as-yet unmapped areas of the Maya Lowlands,” wrote the author of the study.
The researchers are now planning to visit Valeriana and the surrounding settlements to learn more about the population that lived there. The in-person investigation may help broaden their view of what urban life can look like.
The study was published in the journal Antiquity.
