Teenager's Mayan Cities Discovery Cast Into Doubt By Experts
The world woke up earlier this week to news of a Canadian teenager finding a long-lost Mayan city. New reports now suggest the find may not be a city all, Mayan least of all.
The findings, which were announced with the backing of Canadian Space Agency and the University of New Brunswick, have been cast in doubt after experts recognized satellite images as cornfields or marijuana cultivation.
Teenager William Gadoury of Quebec had theorized that Mayan cities should align with Mayan constellations. By overlaying constellations on modern satellite imagery he short-listed about 117 locations that could be probably Mayan cities. The Canadian Space Agency offered to help with its satellites. RADARSAT-2 was pressed into service and it came up with a few locations that looked like long-lost cities. The discovery was announced to the press and it went viral.
"The whole thing is a mess - a terrible example of junk science hitting the internet in free-fall," anthropologist Dr. David Stuart, reportedly wrote in a Facebook post.
Patches identified in the satellite imagery that have been reported as lost cities could be abandoned fields, suggest experts who argued that Mayan constellations have nothing to do with the cities and modern-day constellations that we know.
"Maya constellations that we know of, with the exception of Scorpio, bear no relation to those we find on modern star maps," Anthony Aveni told Wired. Areas that were pointed out on satellite images of Mexico were also recognized by a team of researchers working in that area. However one of images lies close to an ancient site. While they appreciated the teenager's interest, they criticized the space agency and university for not verifying claims on the ground.
