A group of archaeologists has used laser technology to map a 100 km Mayan stone path that could have been built 1,300 years ago to help with the invasion of an isolated city in Yucatan, Mexico.
It is believed that the old road was built by order of the warrior queen Lady K’awiil Ajaw , and would have been covered with white plaster.
Also, the road, also known as Sacbe 1 or White Road 1 , runs from the ancient city of Cobá, one of the largest cities in the Mayan world, to the distant and small settlement of Yaxuná, located in the Yucatan Peninsula.
LIDAR TECHNOLOGY
The recent research shed new light on the nature of the great road.
The study was conducted from the air with LIDAR technology –– that allows to determine the distance from a laser emitter to an object or surface using a pulsed laser beam ––, which allowed anthropologists and archaeologists at the University of Miami to detect, measure and map hidden structures beneath dense vegetation that, in some cases, has grown for centuries, enveloping entire cities.
These lasers hit the ground and bounce back to the instrument, which records the time elapsed between the emission of the light and the detection of its return.
By analyzing this data, the scientists were able to make detailed 3D maps of areas that are normally surrounded by an impenetrable jungle.
MAYA GEOPOLITICS
LIDAR laser technology was used to map a large area of Yucatan, between 2017 and 2019. The technology found up to 8 thousand structures under the trees. He also identified the path and its course.
This road was known as the white road because it was built of limestone and covered with white plaster.
According to Heritage Daily , the images “confirmed that the road, which is about eight meters wide, is not a straight line,” which was the theory of the team that inspected the road in the 1930s.
Archaeologists expressed:
“LIDAR really allowed us to understand the road in much more detail. It helped us identify many new towns and cities along the way, new to us but pre-existing. ”
THE WARRIOR QUEEN BUILT THE ROAD
Coba was a very powerful state militarily and is famous for its many “carved monuments representing bellicose rulers.
According to Science Daily , it is believed that the “white road” was built to control the neighboring settlement of Yaxuná.
The researchers assume that this was done to protect Cobá from the expansive Chichén Itzá Empire.
It is believed that the warrior queen Lady K’awiil Ajaw built the road in the 600s or 700s AD. C.
She was a fearsome warrior who is portrayed in Coba as triumphant over the bound war captives . There are records showing that she was a very successful military leader and greatly expanded her status.
The monarch had the road built as part of his campaign to conquer Yaxuná.
THE IMPACT OF THE MAYAN PATH
Researchers are trying to identify the impact of the Mayan road in the region. The road, which was a miracle of engineering, crossed a region that had been cleared of jungle .
It is believed that it was once the longest road in the Mayan world. Likewise, it stimulated commercial and cultural exchanges, since there was great similarity in merchandise made in both Cobá and Yaxuná.
Finally, the results were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science .