MEXICO CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) – A wooden canoe used by the ancient Maya and believed to be more than 1,000 years old was found in southern Mexico, authorities said, as part of the archaeological work accompanying the construction. of a major tourist train.
The extremely rare canoe was found almost intact, submerged in a freshwater lagoon known as a cenote – one of thousands on the Yucatan peninsula – near the ruins of Chichén Itzá, which was an important Mayan city with elaborate temples. carvings and imposing pyramids.
At just over 1.6 meters long and 80 centimeters wide, the canoe was possibly used to transport water from the cenote or to deposit ritual offerings, according to a statement released Friday night by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH.
The institute described the extraordinary find as “the first canoe of its kind to be found complete and so well preserved in the Mayan area,” adding that experts from the University of the Sorbonne in Paris will assist with the analysis of the wood to determine your age and type.
A three-dimensional model of the spacecraft will also be commissioned, the statement added, to facilitate further study and allow for replications.
The canoe is tentatively dated to AD 830-950, near the end of the classic zenith of Mayan civilization, when dozens of cities in southern Mexico and modern-day Central America thrived amid significant human achievements in mathematics, writing, and art. .
The piece was found while workers building a tourist railway project promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador were inspecting the area surrounding the cenote, which is near a section of the project that will connect with Cancun, a popular resort in Mexico.
López Obrador has presented the so-called Mayan Train as a tourist-friendly infrastructure that will help boost Mexico’s poorer southern states, while critics argue that it risks damaging the region’s delicate ecosystems.
(Report by David Alire García, translated by Sharay Angulo, edited by Diego Oré and Lizbeth Díaz)