Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Mayas

This wall painting features musicians in European clothing on the left and a dancer in a traditional feathered cape on the right.

Cool Finds

Renovations Reveal Rare Maya Murals Hidden in Guatemalan Home

The wall paintings may chart the decline of Spanish colonial influence and resurgence of indigenous culture

Built over the course of 200 years, Aguada Fénix was abandoned just 50 years after its completion.

Cool Finds

Aerial Survey Identifies Oldest, Largest Maya Structure Ever Found in Mexico

The platform stands between 33 and 50 feet tall and measures almost a mile long

Researchers excavate an altar in the capital of the Maya kingdom of Sak Tz'i'.

Cool Finds

Community-Researcher Collaboration Reveals Ancient Maya Capital in Backyard

A recent excavation located the first physical evidence of the capital of the Maya kingdom of Sak Tz’i’, founded in 750 B.C.

An Etlatongo ballplayer figurine unearthed at the site

Cool Finds

Newly Unearthed Mesoamerican Ball Court Offers Insights on Game’s Origins

“This could be the oldest and longest-lived team ball game in the world,” says one archaeologist

Built at the turn of the seventh century, the white plaster-coated road begins in Cobá and ends 62 miles west, at Yaxuná's ancient downtown in the center of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Did a Seventh-Century Warrior Queen Build the Maya’s Longest Road?

Dubbed the “white road” in honor of its limestone paving, the 62-mile path is an engineering marvel on par with Maya pyramids

Parts of Kulubá are already open to the public, and the INAH hopes the newly discovered palace will become accessible “in the medium term.”

Cool Finds

An Ancient Maya Palace Was Discovered in Yucatán State

Archaeologists think it was occupied by Maya elite more than 1,000 years ago

The Pompeiian sorceress' kit contained about 100 different objects.

Cool Finds

Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019

The list includes a sorceress’ kit, a forgotten settlement, a Renaissance masterpiece and a 1,700-year-old egg

Researchers hypothesize that magnetic figures may have been crafted to memorialize the dead, with the attractive forces of the sculptures representing a lingering life force.

Mesoamerican Sculptures Reveal Early Knowledge of Magnetism

Stone figures with magnetized cheeks and navels suggest the pre-Maya civilization of Monte Alto understood the attractive force

Cool Finds

Cave Full of Untouched Maya Artifacts Found at Chichén Itzá

The intact offerings will allow researchers to understand changes over time at the site

Stone tools discovered in Belize's Paynes Creek Salt Works

How Salty Fish Helped the Maya of Belize Bolster Their Economy

A new study suggests that workshops on the coast of Belize were not only producing salt, but also preserving animal meat

Puma skull from the Motmot burial.

The Maya Captured, Traded and Sacrificed Jaguars and Other Large Mammals

New archeological findings suggest the Maya city state Copan dealt in a robust jaguar trade

New Research

Ancient Mayan Clearcutting Still Impacts Carbon in Soil Today

Even 1,000 years after a forest regrows, the soil beneath still won’t hold as much carbon as it once could, a new study suggests

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute archaeologist Ashley Sharpe contemplates the Ceibal site in Guatemala—one of the oldest Maya sites known.

Dogs Were Transported Across Great Distances for Ancient Maya Rituals

A new paper uses chemistry to shed light on the management of Maya animals

Laser Scans Reveal 60,000 Hidden Maya Structures in Guatemala

Houses, fortifications, pyramids and causeways were among the discoveries

Cool Finds

World’s Largest Underwater Cave System Discovered in Mexico

The 215-mile sunken freshwater labyrinth is a trove of ancient Maya artifacts

Trending Today

Meet the Newly Named 86 Stars of the Night Sky

The new names are drawn from China, Australia, South Africa, Maya, Polynesian and Coptic traditions

In this Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, people gather in front of the Kukulkan temple in Chichen Itza, Mexico. Mexican experts said Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 they have discovered what may be the original structure at the pyramid of Kukulkan at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.

Ancient Maya Heritage Comes Alive…With Some Help From Google and the British Museum

Victorian explorer Alfred Maudslay’s images are now available online for all to see

Chocolate was in North America as early as 900-1200 A.D.

A Brief History of Chocolate in the United States

Eating chocolate is a relatively new innovation

"This book was representative of an era during which colonialism and the associated conversion to Christianity oppressed the indigenous population in often violent ways,” says curator Gabriela Pérez-Báez.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

A Rare Public Display of a 17th-Century Mayan Manuscript

With the book newly digitized, scholars are reinterpreting a story of native resistance from within its pages

View of La Danta—one of the world's largest pyramids—located in the Mirador Basin.

LiDAR Scans Reveal Maya Civilization’s Sophisticated Network of Roads

Detailed aerial images reveal a remarkably ambitious transportation network consisting of 17 roads

Page 4 of 5