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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Revealed: massive Maya structures built by vast labour forces

Pyramids, causeways and other edifices formed a densely settled Maya realm in what is now Guatemala.
Ground-level view of a ruined stepped pyramid with trees growing out of it.

Construction of the Danta pyramid, which stood in the Maya city of El Mirador in what is now Guatemala, demanded as many as ten million person-days of labour. Credit: agefotostock/Alamy

An aerial survey has revealed a previously unknown wealth of Maya cities, towns and villages in northern Guatemala: more than 400 settlements, many connected by causeways that would have required vast amounts of labour and material to build1.

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Nature 612, 593 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04392-y

References

  1. Hansen, R. D. et al. Anc. Mesoam. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536122000244 (2022).

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