|
|
Article: Satellites Tracking Footsteps of Mayas; Ancient Roads Still Prove Elusive in Jungles
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 19, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
|
For nearly 15 years, archaeologist William J. Folan has
sidestepped poisonous snakes and combed the tangled underbrush in
one of the most remote jungles of southern Mexico in search of clues
that could revolutionize modern-day thinking on how the hemisphere's
first civilizations developed.
Now, a satellite miles above the dense forests and the
mosquitoes may have found them -- the telltale images of what Folan
says are long-buried highways that linked the most powerful cities
of the ancient Mayan civilization into political states hundreds of
years earlier than most scientists previously estimated.
"I did a back flip when I saw them," said Folan, 64, who heads
a Mayan research ...