The famous pyramid of Kukulkan was built over at least two preexisting structures, archeaologists claim, comparing the monument to a nesting doll. The newly discovered pyramid is centuries older than the visible one.
Image: picture-alliance/M. Mara
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The smallest pyramid is about 10 meters (33 feet) tall and encapsulated within a 20-meter structure which is itself covered with the 30-meter Kukulkan pyramid at the Mexican Chichen Itza site, researchers said on Wednesday.
"It's like a Russian nesting doll. Under the large one we get another and another," said project's chief Rene Chavez Seguro.
The archeaologists used a non-invasive tri-dimensional scanning technique to discover and learn more about the structure. The oldest building appears to have a staircase and an altar on the top, which may have been filled in and preserved. Scientists estimate that it was built between the years 550 and 800 A.D.. Its construction "could tell us about the first-period inhabitants," archaeologist Denisse Lorenia Argote said.
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Scientists have long known about the intermediate layer, which dates back from the time between 800 and 1000 A.D. It was first discovered in the 1930s. The visible pyramid was finished between the years of 1050 and 1300.
More mystery under the surface
The oldest layer does not fully align with the second and third layer of construction. This may indicate that there are other buildings hidden at the same level.
According to US archeaologist Geoffrey Braswell, who did research at Chichen Itza but was not involved in the latest project, "the third Russian doll moving in may actually be one of a set of several small dolls rattling around inside the same shell.
"We just do not know," he told the AP news agency.
Last year, the experts discovered that the whole site was built atop an underground river, which was also considered holy by the ancient Maya.
dj/msh (AP, AFP)
'Hidden' Stonehenge revealed
Stonehenge, it turns out, is just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers have used digital mapping technology to reveal scores of significant ancient monuments beneath the stone formation.
Image: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Casting Stonehenge in a whole new light
"It's not yet another find from Stonehenge, it's a fundamental step forward in the way we understand it," said Vincent Gaffney, a University of Birmingham professor who led a four-year study on the mysterious rock formation and newly found treasures beneath it. The result, released this week, is a digital map outlining newly discovered ancient formations - all buried beneath the Stonehenge site.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Terra incognita'
Stonehenge has long baffled scientists, and most of the area around it is "terra incognita," as Professor Gaffney put it. During the study, his team from the University of Birmingham, together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna, discovered 17 previously unknown ritual monuments which may be roughly as old as Stonehenge itself.
Image: University of Birmingham
Seeing the unseen
What may resemble cells under a microscope are in fact digital maps of the newly discovered ritual monuments found around the Stonehenge area. Researchers used magnetometers, ground-penetrating radar arrays, electromagnetic induction sensors, earth resistance surveys, and terrestrial 3D laser scanners to map the location.
Image: University of Birmingham
Technology meets history
The four-year project is the largest of its kind thus far. Here, a researcher is pictured using a motorized magnetometer, which allowed for unprecedented spatial representation of the subterranean realm.
Image: University of Birmingham
Super henge
At the Durrington Walls site, inhabited some 4,500 years ago, a so-called super henge was among the discoveries. It was a massive ritual monument, measuring more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) in circumference. Experts say it also may have been lined with up to as many as 60 three-meter-high stones, similar to Stonehenge. Some of those stone may still be intact under the ground.
Image: University of Birmingham
Wooden remains
A massive ancient timber building, referred to as a long barrow, was discovered and mapped in detail. It is thought to have been used for burial ceremonies in ancient times, including the ritual inhumation of the dead, and was likely covered by a mound of earth.
Image: University of Birmingham
Long barrow
The wooden burial construction, the frame of which is pictured here from above, is likely older than Stonehenge, which experts say was constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC.
Image: University of Birmingham
Non-invasive research
"Developing non-invasive methods to document our cultural heritage is one of the greatest challenges of our time," said Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the participating Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, adding that only the latest technology makes it possible. Here, a researcher is operating a ground-penetrating radar.
Image: University of Birmingham
11 millennia in one place
The subterranean images also revealed prehistoric pits, hundreds of burial mounds, and settlements from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman times. The data gives researchers new insights on the surrounding area, spanning a time frame of over 11,000 years. The field work took 120 days, spread over four years.
Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Ancient mystery
President Barack Obama visited Stonehenge on September 5, 2014. Stonehenge is thought to have been built during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, between 3000 and 2000 BC. It was likely used as a burial site and for religious ceremonies. With no written documents from the period, not much is known. That has led to sundry theories tied to the stones - some involving supernatural influences.
