Teen Makes Stellar Discovery of Previously Unknown Maya City

[Free Vulcan]

William Gadoury, a 15-year-old Canadian from Quebec, has revolutionized the academic world by using ingenious reasoning to discover a previously unknown Maya city. Based on his own theory – that the Maya chose the location of their cities following constellations, he realized that there must be another undiscovered city in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Satellite images of the area have confirmed his hypothesis.

As reported in the Spanish newspaper ABC, William Gadoury has become a little star in the eyes of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA, and the Japanese space agency (JAXA) with this finding, which will be released shortly in the most prestigious scientific journals.

William, reportedly a passionate student of the Maya world, found 22 Maya constellations in the Madrid Codex and superimposed them onto a Google Earth map of the Yucatan Peninsula. Then he realized that the stars corresponded to the location of the 117 Maya cities, and also the brightest stars coincided with the most important cities.

Read more:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/05/no_author/quebec-teenager-discovers-lost-mayan-city/

[Roscoe Proudfoot]

This would be a great story if it's true. But according to some Updates at Gizmodo the experts are not buying it.....

"Thomas Garrison, an anthropologist at USC Dornsife and an expert in remote sensing, says these objects (supposed buildings) are relic corn fields....."I applaud the young kid’s effort.....the rectilinear nature of the feature and the secondary vegetation growing back within it are clear signs of a relic milpa (corn field). I’d guess its been fallow for 10-15 years."

"... Ivan Šprajc from the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies in Slovenia....says the Maya were very good astronomers, and that they were interested in certain stars and celestial objects, but he’s skeptical that these charts can be used to reveal the location of Maya sites. As he told Gizmodo:

"Very few Maya constellations have been identified, and even in these cases we do not know how many and which stars exactly composed each constellation. It is thus impossible to check whether there is any correspondence between the stars and the location of Maya cities. In general, since we know of several environmental facts that influenced the location of Maya settlements, the idea correlating them with stars is utterly unlikely.""

http://gizmodo.com/teen-discovers-lost-maya-city-using-ancient-star-maps-1775735999?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Wait and see, but I hope the kid doesn't get discouraged.

[driftdiver]

This would be a great story if it's true. But according to some Updates at Gizmodo the experts are not buying it.....

"Thomas Garrison, an anthropologist at USC Dornsife and an expert in remote sensing, says these objects (supposed buildings) are relic corn fields....."I applaud the young kid’s effort.....the rectilinear nature of the feature and the secondary vegetation growing back within it are clear signs of a relic milpa (corn field). I’d guess its been fallow for 10-15 years."

"... Ivan Šprajc from the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies in Slovenia....says the Maya were very good astronomers, and that they were interested in certain stars and celestial objects, but he’s skeptical that these charts can be used to reveal the location of Maya sites. As he told Gizmodo:

"Very few Maya constellations have been identified, and even in these cases we do not know how many and which stars exactly composed each constellation. It is thus impossible to check whether there is any correspondence between the stars and the location of Maya cities. In general, since we know of several environmental facts that influenced the location of Maya settlements, the idea correlating them with stars is utterly unlikely.""

http://gizmodo.com/teen-discovers-lost-maya-city-using-ancient-star-maps-1775735999?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Wait and see, but I hope the kid doesn't get discouraged.

The 15 yr old should know that serious grant money is required before making any discovery.   

[LaRueLaDue]

The 15 yr old should know that serious grant money is required before making any discovery.

Bingo!

Stop thinking independently citizen.   

[Roscoe Proudfoot]

Well, at least this should be pretty straightforward. When they look, they will either find a pyramid or an old corn field. And pyramids are pretty difficult to hide!