INAHA LiDAR image showing the ball court.
While excavating an ancient ball court in Campeche, Mexico where the Maya once played a ritual ballgame, archaeologists recently uncovered an even older structure: an underground chamber with painted stucco walls.
The discovery was made as part of a recent survey of Mexico’s Maya Lowlands, during which archaeologists also discovered a nearby pyramid likely built from 1250 to 1524 C.E. Now, researchers hope these discoveries will offer new insights into life in Mexico before Spanish conquest.
Discovering The Mysterious Underground Chamber
INAHPart of the underground structure.
Between April and May 2024, archaeologists excavated a forested area of Calakmul, Mexico as part of the project “Expanding the archaeological panorama of the central Mayan Lowlands.” According to a press release from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, the work focused mainly on an 87-square-mile patch of land in the Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve.
During this survey, researchers were excavating a Maya ball court when they discovered parts of the mysterious underground chamber, covered with a layer of painted stucco. This structure likely dates back to the Early Classical Period (200-600 C.E.).
“We located parts of an earlier building that had painted walls,” archaeologist Ivan Šprajc of the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies in Slovenia told Live Science. “But only further excavations may reveal the shape of that underlying building and what its function was.”
While it’s not yet clear what the chamber was used for, Šprajc said it was “evidently a very important structure, because ball courts are normally found only at major Maya sites, which were centers of the regional political organization.”
A year prior, in 2023, researchers had used LiDAR technology to identify previously unknown Maya structures in this area, including a lost city called Ocomtún. Šprajc said the underground chamber was found in a previously unexplored area south of Ocomtún.
What Does This Site Reveal About Maya History?
INAHA ceramic animal foot discovered at the top of a Maya pyramid.
The ball court chamber wasn’t the only discovery researchers made during the recent survey.
At another site, the team discovered a plaza with a 52-foot-high pyramid and a water reservoir. At the top of the pyramid, researchers discovered ceramic vessels, a flint blade, and a ceramic animal leg, possibly that of an armadillo. These items were likely left there as offerings and may date to the Late Postclassic period (1250-1524 C.E.), shortly before the Spanish arrived.
By the end of the Classic period, the Maya Central Lowlands had fallen into disarray. A combination of environmental calamities, overpopulation, and warfare had driven local settlements into ruin, displacing much of the area’s population.
However, it appears that some groups remained in the region after this collapse — and continued to leave offerings at the pyramids.
“The offering indicates that, even after most of the Classic period Maya settlements had been abandoned, small and impoverished human group[s] were still rambling around, putting offerings on or near the buildings of their forebears,” Šprajc told Live Science.
After reading about the Maya ball court chamber, dive into the story of how this ancient civilization collapsed. Then, read about El Castillo, the massive Maya pyramid of the city of Chichén Itzá.