Uh-oh! The recent Mayan civilization discovery of William Gadoury, a 15-year-old Canadian teen from Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, Quebec, was reportedly debunked by some Mayan experts. According to the experts, Gadoury's findings lacked evidence.
The remarkable story of William Gadoury's unearthing of a long-lost Mayan city went viral on the internet Wednesday. Even though Gadoury's work was praised by the Canadian Space Agency, which provided him the satellite images, some experts were doubting the said discovery since the idea of correlating the Mayan settlements location with stars is "utterly unlikely."
Why Experts Doubt William Gadoury's Mayan Civilization Discovery
One of the reasons why some experts were skeptical about Gadoury's recent Mayan city discovery was the fact that the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico City cannot confirm the existence of the new Mayan city. According to Fox News Latino, the Mayan experts also noted the Canadian teen's theory was off, saying nobody knew if the city was indeed Mayan-built.
Mayans Did Not Build Their Cities Based On Constellations
In addition, an INAH official said the hypothesis saying the Mayans created their cities based on their civilization's ancient astronomical constellation has been long rejected by its anthropologists. The statement was also echoed by other experts.
"The Maya did not design their cities nor their landscapes based on the stars," Autonomous University of Yucatan's Department of Anthropology professor and researcher Christopher M. Gotz said. "They did so based on mundane factors such as water sources, availability to raw materials and access to cultivable soil."
Newly Found Mayan City's Location Has Been Explored Since 1930s
Experts were also doubting Gadoury's discovery since the location of the long lost Mayan city in the thick jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico had been extensively explored before. In fact,Tulane University's National System of Researchers and PhD in anthropology member Sr. Rafael Cobos Palma told Verne the area had been comprehensively reconnoitered by several Mexican and non-Mexican researchers since the 1930s.
Long Lost Mayan Settlements Are Merely Abandoned Cornfields
Another reason for experts' skepticism on Gadoury's findings was the features shown in the space-based photos. University of Southern California: Dornsife anthropologist and remote sensing experts Thomas Garrison said the rectangular feature and the secondary vegetation were "clear signs" of a relic milpa or an old fallow cornfield, Gizmodo notes.
Mesoamerica Center-University of Texas anthropologist David Stuart also agreed with Garrison, calling Gadoury's discovery as "junk science" on Facebook. Slovenia's Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies associate professor and head researcher Ivan Šprajc, on the other hand, said the correlation between the location of Mayan settlements and the constellations is "utterly unlikely," as previously reported.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA and Japan's space agency have all verified that Gadoury's discovery include a pyramid and about 30 structures. Gadoury named the newly discovered Mayan city K'aak Chi or "Mouth of Fire."
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