{"id":77211,"date":"2025-05-18T15:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T15:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/archaeologists-uncover-ancient-mayan-temple-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula"},"modified":"2025-05-18T16:29:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T16:29:48","slug":"archaeologists-uncover-ancient-mayan-temple-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/archaeologists-uncover-ancient-mayan-temple-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Mayan Temple in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Sudan. <\/strong><\/span>Anthropologists and archeologists believe that the Mayan civilization started around 1500 BCE, and continued to thrive throughout Central America and southern North America until around 900 CE, but the civilization continued to thrive in the Yucatan Peninsula for centuries longer, with its last city falling to the Spanish in 1697.<\/p>\n

Archeologists in Mexico have found a roughly 1,000-year-old ancient Mayan temple in El Tigre, an archaeological site in the Yucatan Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Dating back to 1000 to 1200 AD, the circular structure has two levels and was likely capped with a flat roof. Archeologists believe it was dedicated to the Mayan serpent deity Kukulcan, one of four major deities of the ancient Mayan religion.<\/p>\n

Officials further believe it may be the same temple described in the writings of Don Pablo Paxbolon, who led the Mayan people in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco between 1575 and 1576. His writings describe four such temples in the area, each dedicated to one of the main deities.<\/p>\n

While those specific temples have not yet been found, other circular structures in the Yucatan Peninsula have been uncovered, including in Edzna, Becan, Uxmal and Chichen Itza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building broadens our knowledge of the late occupation of El Tigre,\u201d Diego Prieto Herna\u0301ndez, an anthropologist and director general of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said during an Oct. 30 conference, as quoted in Mexican media. \u201cCircular structures generally correspond to the early Postclassic period between A.D. 1000 and 1200, when the Maya zone had links with other regions of Mesoamerica, in particular with central Mexico, Oaxaca and the Gulf Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yucatan Peninsula served as one of the last settlements for the Mayans before the civilization collapsed. Its fall remains a topic of debate among experts.<\/b><\/p>\n

The discovery was made as part of a new railway, called the \u201cTren Maya\u201d or Maya Train, being constructed in Mexico that will span 1,000 miles. The project has been taking special care to preserve archeological artifacts and has already uncovered a large number of discoveries since the project began. As of October 30, 2,698 structures, 249 items, 289,100 ceramic fragments and 177 partial or complete human remains have been found.<\/p>\n

The Maya train is set to begin operations in December.<\/p>\n\r\n