PDA

View Full Version : 15-year-old boy claims to have found lost Mayan city from his house



Teh One Who Knocks
05-11-2016, 11:01 AM
FOX News


http://i.imgur.com/JSd2x9e.jpg

A Canadian teenager believes he has discovered the ruins of a lost Mayan city in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula — with the assistance of Google Maps and a star chart.

William Gadoury, of Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Quebec, has had a longstanding interest in Mayan civilization, particularly where they chose to build their towns and cities.

"The Mayans were extremely good builders, but they often built in places that made little practical sense — far from rivers, far from fertile areas. It seemed strange for a civilization that was so intelligent," Gadoury told CBC News. "I knew they were good at astronomy, so I tried to make the link."

Gadoury studied 22 Mayan constellations and found they matched the placement of 117 known ancient cities when overlaid on a map. He then realized that a 23rd constellation was incomplete, and one city hadn't been discovered.

That's when the teen got the Canadian Space Agency involved. After meeting CSA project officer Daniel De Lisle at a school science fair and presenting his theory, Gadoury was given high-definition satellite images which he cross-referenced against Google Earth.

Underneath the area's dense vegetation, Gadoury located possible man-made structures where the astronomical data suggested the missing city would be. He believes them to be the remains of pyramids. De Lisle, of the Canadian Space Agency, is cautiously optimistic.

"There are linear features that would suggest there is something underneath that big canopy," De Lisle told The Independent. "There are enough items to suggest it could be a man made structure."

Gadoury has tentatively dubbed the ancient city K'aak Chi, or Mouth of Fire. His findings will be published in a scientific journal and he has been invited to present them at a conference in Brazil next year.

Goofy
05-11-2016, 11:33 AM
:tup:

PorkChopSandwiches
05-11-2016, 03:39 PM
Did no one go and verify?

FBD
05-11-2016, 04:26 PM
the spanish verified that they all converted to christianity or face being driven off or killed

Teh One Who Knocks
05-12-2016, 12:05 PM
Did no one go and verify?

A Teenager Probably Didn't Discover An Ancient Mayan City After All
Uproxx


The internet was recently abuzz when a teenager reportedly discovered an ancient and unknown Mayan city just by studying the stars. Well, it turns out that ancient city wasn’t actually a new discovery, and the teenager briefly received credit for an awesome development that wasn’t actually his. All in a days work for a 15 year-old, to be honest. Who hasn’t taken credit for something that seems incredibly cool but might not be true? It’s how most people his age get their first kiss. In actuality, the “city” is just a very old man-made corn field – AKA a “milpa.”

According to additional reporting done by New York Magazine, a good number of experts in the field almost immediately disputed the finding and the method by which William Gadoury found it in the first place. Using specific stars from a constellation to find a random location isn’t a tried and true scientific method, and there was no double-checking of Gadoury’s method before people began applauding him for uncovering such a magnificent find. So while it probably shouldn’t be surprising the the discovery didn’t pan out as the public originally hoped it would, it is also a mostly expected outcome.

Whether they are geniuses or not, teenagers generally don’t discover the next major find in the world of ancient cities without a little help from more senior scientists. It’s unfortunate that Gadoury went viral online before his discovery was refuted by professionals in the field.