orbis quintus

La Times blog points to a BBC story in Spanish about a newly discovered Mayan city being dated the oldest so far. Slapping up the rough translation, done by robots of Google:

This is an archaeological complex “monumental” which is located in the southern state of Yucatan, in the east.

According to archaeologists the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), this is a city that may be the oldest in the state and perhaps just as important as other metropolises of the first rank as Chichen Itza.

The city, located in the village of Buenavista San Diego, dating from about 2,300 years old.

And it was located during archaeological salvage work carried out by the imminent construction of a road in the area.

“During the journeys rescue localize this administrative centre ceremonial” he told the BBC Science specialist INAH, Thelma Sierra, who carried out the finding.

More ancient

The center was discovered in early 2008 and after analyzing the material found archaeologists concluded that this is perhaps the oldest Mayan metropolis of Yucatan.

“The archaeological site was occupied since the year 350 BC to 350 of our era” explains the archaeologist.

The archaeological complex has contemporary architectural elements to the cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal, also located in the Yucatan.

“That is why we believe that this is a city with a range quite important.”

“Very few sites have-and steles in this centre we have recorded three steles-and monumental architecture as important as that found here,” says the researcher.

Archaeologists have managed to recover some 50 archaeological site, including pottery and stone materials.

“We probably worked workshops where the flint (sort of quartz) which is much in this region and also quite a few burials both children and adults, all with funerary offerings.”

“We also found burned human remains inside a hole, possibly a ceremonial funeral was held there,” said the archaeologist.

All these findings, researchers point out, indicate that it was a very important metropolis that perhaps was closely linked to other cities in Yucatan as what is now Guatemala.

According to specialists INAH, road construction will not sound monumental structures of the ancient city, but if you go on housing construction.

“That’s why we’re digging all these structures to recover as much information as possible.”

“With what we have been able to recover so far we know that this is an extremely rich archaeological center and important,” said the specialist INAH.

“Now we hope to learn more about what was happening in this period of occupation in southern Yucatan state.”