Archaeologists discover largest Maya dam at Tikal

What the Maya have achieved in building and engineering is amazing, but sometime they just went beyond what i could imagine.
It dosn't surprice me though, that they would build something like this when i look at some of their other spetacular designs, it's just that they allmost make it perfect.



Read more here
And here

Recent excavations, sediment coring and mapping at the pre-Columbian city of Tikal have identified new landscaping and engineering feats, including the largest ancient dam built by the Maya of Central America.

That dam – constructed from cut stone, rubble and earth – stretched more than 260 feet in length, stood about 33 feet high and held about 20 million gallons of water in a man-made reservoir.

Water collection and storage were critical in the environment where rainfall is seasonal and extended droughts not uncommon. And so, the Maya carefully integrated the built environment – expansive plazas, roadways, buildings and canals – into a water-collection and management system. At Tikal, they collected literally all the water that fell onto these paved and/or plastered surfaces and sluiced it into man-made reservoirs.

Detailed in the latest findings by the UC-led efforts are:
*The largest ancient dam built by the ancient Maya of Central America
*Discussion on how reservoir waters were likely released
*Details on the construction of a cofferdam needed by the Maya to dredge one of the largest reservoirs at Tikal
*The presence of ancient springs linked to the initial colonization of Tikal
*Use of sand filtration to cleanse water entering reservoirs
*A "switching station" that accommodated seasonal filling and release of water
* Finding of the deepest, rock-cut canal segment in the Maya lowlands

Picture source and some more
This image shows excavation of the dam identified by the UC-led team. A collapsed sluice gate is outlined in red.


These are veneer stones of the dam identified by the UC researchers. What was once thought to be a sluice is outlined in red and is now filled with slump-down debris.


This is a view of a Maya-built canal. Pictured is Guatemalan researcher Liwy Grazioso, who has participated in the work by a UC-led team.


Credit: University of Cincinnati researchers

S&F.
Wonderful post.
Keep on posting Actual Archaeological findings like this.
If more & more users would post on actual archaeological stuff and mysteries instead of some users speculating on star-gates in iran out of mugs and carvings it would be great.

reply to post by coredrill
I don't fully agree with you on that, i think both are needed.
ATS wouldn't be what it is, if it weren't for a little speculation once in a while, it is mainly a conspiracy site after all

speculation based on proper science. not some aliens did that kind of speculations.

Now for example, you put in a word "aliens" in your post's title, there would have been many comments, many agreeing with you.
But you know that humans built it.
ATS should actually change their Logo..."Deny Ignorance" when many of the posts in ATS display highest reaches of ignorance. (Not your post. Your post has provided information without prejudice)

Man! I was in Tikal in the 80s. Wish they had discovered this then. Back then it was all just overgrown jungle with a small clearing for the temples. You would have had no idea that there were ancient dams there.

Very cool discovery.

Thank you so much for this post it so wonder full to know so many good things are out there , it gives us a better understanding of what there life was like , they were truly a remarkable people. They had such a true understanding of how to build such a wonder to the eye .

Fantastic!

It's always cool to find our ancestors continually defying our expectations on what they could accomplish.
Too often are these accomplishments attributed on the fringe to other forces, but, we need learn and accept that we should never underestimate the ingenuity and intelligence of all those that have come before us.

S&F!

reply to post by Mianeye

Bit silly really but Why no water there now?

reply to post by Mianeye


Great, I love reading about real finds. I only wish the Maya were an older civilization, but nonetheless, very interesting. Great.

Water filtration system, ingenious.

Jheeez!! That last pic is awesome...

A great contribution, thanks for your effort helping to rediscover the truth regarding pre-columbian cultures. Mayas were highly skilled controlling water and creating artificial lakes. Here is some more information, it's from 2010.

Archaeologists from the University of Bonn have found a water reservoir the size of a soccer field, whose floor is lined with ceramic shards, in the Mexican rainforest. It seems that in combination with the limestone on top, the shards were supposed to seal the artificial lake. The system was built about 1,500 years ago. It is the first example of this design found for the Maya. It is not yet known whether the reservoir's entire floor is tiled.

www.sciencedaily.com...

What i'm interested in is where did they get the knowledge that water can be utilized that way. It didn't just fall from the sky, did it?

Originally posted by SepticSheepHerder
What i'm interested in is where did they get the knowledge that water can be utilized that way. It didn't just fall from the sky, did it?

From Nature of course. By & From Observation. By trial & error.
What do you think, humans are not capable of observing stuff and arriving at conclusions??

Yours is a seriously stupid question. I must say.

Originally posted by coredrill

Originally posted by SepticSheepHerder
What i'm interested in is where did they get the knowledge that water can be utilized that way. It didn't just fall from the sky, did it?

From Nature of course. By & From Observation. By trial & error.
What do you think, humans are not capable of observing stuff and arriving at conclusions??

Yours is a seriously stupid question. I must say.

It's pretty easy to say that today. But imagine if you've never actually seen a dam before. How would you even begin to imagine building a dam. Or a Pyramid. The design, the construction and the concept. Maybe I view ancient people as stupid, I don't know.

Originally posted by SepticSheepHerder
What i'm interested in is where did they get the knowledge that water can be utilized that way. It didn't just fall from the sky, did it?

Your question is the same question archaeologist had been doing for a while. All we have are theories to explain how ancient people built all those wonders.

So, your question is not stupid.

I've noticed similar reservoirs in such diverse locations as Australia, Arizona, and elsewhere.

Arizona


Australia


While I realize all people from all eras of history shared a common need for managing water resources, these structures seem almost identical. Any chance they could have been made by the same civilization? There are literally thousands of them scattered throughout the Australian Outback, an they seem to have been built without regards to present flowing rivers and shorelines. I authored a thread about it here, but it received little traction and was eventually derailed.