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Article: Secret room which may contain Michelangelo sketches to be opened to public

Just four at a time, visitors will soon be allowed access to a long-hidden space inside Florence’s Medici Chapel where delicate charcoal drawings sketched on the walls have been attributed by some experts to Michelangelo.

The secret room – a tiny space just 33ft by 10ft – was discovered in 1975, when officials were searching for a new exit from the Medici Chapel to accommodate increasing visitors.

The museum’s then-director, Paolo Dal Poggetto, “firmly believed that they were by Michelangelo,” said the current director, Paola D’Agostino. A fierce debate ensued, and continues to this day.

“The major scholars of Michelangelo’s drawings dismissed the attributions” at the time of discovery 50 years ago, Ms D’Agostino said.

“Others had a more moderate view, in the sense they tough that some could be by Michelangelo and others could be by followers. So the debate is ongoing.”

The room was used to store coal until 1955, and then sealed closed and forgotten for decades below a trapdoor that was in turn hidden beneath furniture.

The drawings themselves were discovered under two layers of plaster.

According to Mr Dal Poggetto’s theory, Michelangelo hid in the tiny space from “the wrath of Pope Clement VII” for supporting a short-lived republic that overthrew the Medicis, sketching studies for some of his projects.

They include sketches believed to be the legs of Giuliano de’ Medici, as included in the New Sacristy near the secret room’s entrance.

For most of the last 50 years, access to the room has been strictly restricted.

Officials decided to open the room to the public on a limited basis, and will alternate exposure to LED lights with extended periods of darkness to protect the works.

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Secret room which may contain Michelangelo sketches to be opened to public | BreakingNews.ie The room in Florence’s Medici Chapel was discovered in 1975 and had previously been used to store coal

Gardaí investigating criminal damage done to Neolithic passage tomb

Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating an incident of criminal damage at an ancient neolithic passage tomb in Co Sligo.

A technical examination of the scene has been carried out by the garda divisional scenes of crime unit and investigations are ongoing.

Photographer Ken Williams visited the historical site at Carrowkeel over the weekend and took photographs of words and shapes scratched into stones at the tomb which is over 5,000 years old.

Mr Williams, who regularly photographs at archaeological sites, said it was the worst he had ever seen and that he reported the vandalism to gardaí and the NMS.

Access to the monuments was closed by the Office of Public Works (OPW) today to allow for investigations by the OPW, the National Monuments Service (NMS) and gardaí.

Mr Williams said that nine stones in total and 11 surfaces had been carved into.

He said that the passage tomb where he found the markings in is very awkward to get to and you would have to get on your hands and knees to crawl into it.

The NMS said in a statement that the etching of extensive graffiti across various architectural stones of a number of the passage tombs is being treated very seriously as is the apparent collapse of an entrance stone to one of the tombs.

"Such interference is a serious offence and can lead to significant penalties being imposed," it said.

Sligo County Council said it was dismayed at the "mindless vandalism at the site".

It said: "The cairns at Carrowkeel are the final resting places of early neolithic farmers and it is shocking that anyone would think it appropriate to damage these sites left by our ancestors over 5,000 years ago.

"These monuments are fragile and need to be protected and treated with respect."

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Gardaí investigating damage to Neolithic passage tomb Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating an incident of criminal damage at an ancient neolithic passage tomb in Co Sligo.

Article; 'Exciting' archaeological discoveries made along M28 motorway route

Archaeologists excavating dozens of sites along the route of a new motorway in Co Cork have said they are excited by their findings.

Those findings have revealed the home of one of the first farmers to settle in the area, along with a bronze age burial ground, weapons, kitchen implements and pottery.

The farmer's home is believed to be one of a number in the area that are almost 6,000 years old.

The excavation work is being done by a team of 50 archaeologists as part of preparatory work for the construction of the M28 motorway.

It will connect the port of Ringaskiddy with the Jack Lynch Tunnel and the main Cork-Dublin motorway, the M8.

The archaeologists, from Rubicon Heritage Services, have been conducting excavations along the 12.5km route of the new motorway since January of last year.

Rubicon was commissioned to do the work by Cork County Council, which is managing the motorway construction project on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

TII is providing funding. The overall cost of the M28 motorway project is expected to be around €300m.

The archaeologists have dug 50,000 metres of test trenches along the motorway route. Just one of the 38 sites where they have been digging had been known about previously.

"This is all new archaeology," said TII Project Archaeologist Ken Hanley.

"The net gain to the public is enormous, because the knowledge we get from a project like this can be quite staggering.

"When you take it together in terms of the amount of infrastructural development over the last few decades, it really has been a complete game changer in terms of what we know about the archaeology of Ireland."

Archaeologists excavating dozens of sites along the route of a new motorway in Co Cork have said they are excited by their findings.

Those findings have revealed the home of one of the first farmers to settle in the area, along with a bronze age burial ground, weapons, kitchen implements and pottery.

The farmer's home is believed to be one of a number in the area that are almost 6,000 years old.

The excavation work is being done by a team of 50 archaeologists as part of preparatory work for the construction of the M28 motorway.

It will connect the port of Ringaskiddy with the Jack Lynch Tunnel and the main Cork-Dublin motorway, the M8.

The archaeologists, from Rubicon Heritage Services, have been conducting excavations along the 12.5km route of the new motorway since January of last year.

Rubicon was commissioned to do the work by Cork County Council, which is managing the motorway construction project on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

TII is providing funding. The overall cost of the M28 motorway project is expected to be around €300m.

The archaeologists have dug 50,000 metres of test trenches along the motorway route. Just one of the 38 sites where they have been digging had been known about previously.

"This is all new archaeology," said TII Project Archaeologist Ken Hanley.

"The net gain to the public is enormous, because the knowledge we get from a project like this can be quite staggering.

"When you take it together in terms of the amount of infrastructural development over the last few decades, it really has been a complete game changer in terms of what we know about the archaeology of Ireland."

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'Exciting' archaeological discoveries made on M28 route Archaeologists excavating dozens of sites along the route of a new motorway in Co Cork have said they are excited by their findings.

Article: Amateur makes 'gold find of the century' in Norway

A Norwegian out walking on doctors' advice unearthed rare 6th-century gold jewellery using a newly bought metal detector, a discovery archaeologists have said was Norway's "gold find of the century".

"At first I thought it was chocolate coins or Captain Sabertooth coins," said 51-year-old Erlend Bore, referring to a fictional Norwegian pirate.

"It was totally unreal."

The cache comprised nine Norwegian gold medallions and gold pearls that once formed an opulent necklace, as well as three gold rings.

Archaeologists say the find is unique because of the design on the medallions - a type of horse from Norse mythology.

Mr Bore, who dreamt of becoming an archaeologist as a child, made the discovery on a farmer's land near Stavanger in August after he bought a metal detector on his doctors' recommendations to get more exercise.

He had been out searching and was about to head home for the day when the device suddenly began beeping on a hillside.

He called archaeologists, who took over the search.

The jewels, which weigh a little more than 100 grammes, were discovered to date from around 500 AD.

"It's the gold find of the century in Norway," said Ole Madsen, the head of the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology.

"To find that much gold all at once is extremely unusual."

The most recent comparable find in Norway dates back to the 19th century.

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Amateur makes 'gold find of the century' in Norway A Norwegian out walking on doctors' advice unearthed rare 6th-century gold jewellery using a newly bought metal detector, a discovery archaeologists have said was Norway's "gold find of the century".

Article: Four Roman swords discovered in Dead Sea cave in Israel

Four Roman-era swords, their wooden and leather hilts and scabbards and steel blades exquisitely preserved after 1,900 years in a desert cave, surfaced in a recent excavation by Israeli archaeologists near the Dead Sea, officials announced.

The cache of exceptionally intact artefacts was found about two months ago and tells a story of empire and rebellion, of long-distance conquest and local insurrection, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

Researchers, who published the preliminary findings in a newly released book, propose that the arms — four swords and the head of a javelin, known as a pilum — were stashed in the remote cavern by Jewish rebels during an uprising against the Roman Empire in the 130s.

The swords were dated based on their typology, and have not yet undergone radiocarbon dating.

The find was part of the antiquities authority’s Judean Desert Survey, which aims to document and excavate caves near the Dead Sea and secure scrolls and other precious artefacts before looters have a chance to plunder them.

The cool, arid and stable climate of the desert caves has allowed exceptional preservation of organic remains, including hundreds of ancient parchment fragments known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Those Jewish texts, discovered last century, contain the earliest known versions of the Hebrew Bible, as well an assortment of esoteric writings.

Archaeologists returned to this particular cave near the desert oasis of Ein Gedi to document an inscription found decades earlier.

At the back of the cave, in one of the deepest parts of it, inside a niche, I was able to retrieve that artefact — the Roman pilum head, which came out almost in mint condition,” said Asaf Gayer, an archaeologist with Ariel University.

But though the swords were found on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, they were likely crafted in a distant European province and brought to the province of Judaea by soldiers in the military, said Guy Stiebel, a Tel Aviv University archaeologist specialising in Roman military history.

He said the quality of their preservation was exceptionally rare for Roman weapons, with only a small handful of examples from elsewhere in the empire and beyond its borders.

“Each one of them can tell you an entire story,” he said.

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Four Roman swords discovered in Dead Sea cave in Israel | BreakingNews.ie The cache of exceptionally intact artefacts was found about two months ago

Article: 'Grave concern' for Ireland's national heritage sites as vandalism is on the rise

Significant monuments that have been targeted this year include the Glendalough Deerstone and Tara’s Stone of Destiny.

THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS Service as well as a member of the Heritage Council have expressed worry that Ireland’s historic monuments are being increasingly targeted by vandalism and attacks.

Pat Reid, who works at the Glendalough Heritage Forum, told The Journal that he was shocked to discover damage to an ancient granite stone last week.

“There’s certainly been an escalation in damage to Glendalough and other important sites in recent years, during Covid but certainly post-Covid,” he said.

“People are visiting sites closer to home, which is great but they’re not always respecting the site. It’s a pity to see this change in attitude towards national monuments and heritage sites.”

Read more here on how to support a major Noteworthy project to examine if Ireland’s historic sites are at risk of disappearing.
The ancient stone in Glendalough with a hollow depression at its centre is known as the Deerstone due to a story linking it to St Kevin and deer.

Reid discovered last week that a fire had been lit on the Deerstone, leaving it with significant cracks which he believes will grow worse in winter time when ice in the damaged stone’s crevices expands.

Reid said he wants to assume that whoever lit the fire did so without realising the damage the high heat would cause and didn’t act out of malice.

“There’s no signage directly next to the stone, but it would be impossible for someone to not know it had some significance. Legend has it St Kevin had a doe leave milk in the hollow in the stone so that a baby whose mother had passed away wouldn’t go hungry.”

“Even if you thought it was a regular stone and didn’t know it was linked to a saint, you shouldn’t be lighting a barbeque in a monastic complex,” he said.

Reid believes that it’s more likely that an accelerant such as petrol could have been poured on the stone to start a fire, rather than a naively constructed barbeque, because there was no ash left at the site afterwards.

Many other sites around Ireland have also been targeted, including perhaps the country’s most famous stone: the Lia Fáil, or Stone of Destiny at the Hill of Tara, which had the word ‘fake’ spray-painted on it in February.

The stone, which is over 5,500 years old and was used to crown High Kings of Ireland, was painstakingly cleaned with warm water and steam so as not to erode or damage it while removing the paint.

Other historic sites such as St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Gowran, Co Kilkenny have had pieces of stone broken off them, with the 13th-century church being attacked twice last year.

Solutions
“It’s shocking the disregard some people have for our national heritage. People who just don’t feel attached to it,” Reid added.

A spokesperson for the National Monuments Service said “reports of vandalism and intentional damage to archaeological monuments” have been rising in recent years.

Illegal metal detecting, damage to stone structures and instances of graffiti are increasing, the statement said, while “the lighting of illegal fires at monuments is also of grave concern, with an added risk of course of fires burning out of control and damaging areas of natural heritage also”.

Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan told The Journal that the National Monuments Service has “sought to modernise and consolidate the legislation that protects our monuments”.

The Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023 (the Bill) is “expected to be enacted in coming months”, he said.

The legislation will include penalties of up to 5 years imprisonment and a €10,000,000 fine and a new fixed payment notice regime to allow authorised officers to issue on-the-spot fines.

“While there are existing legal consequences for causing damage to the State’s heritage, the new Bill will bring added clarity and robustness to this process. The lighting of fire, as occurred last week at Glendalough, is among a range of offences created under that Bill,” Noonan stated.

“Educating people is very effective in discouraging them from inflicting intentional damage at heritage sites, but also in creating greater awareness about the unintentional damage that visitors to heritage sites can cause,” he added.

Reid was also of the belief that encouraging people to learn about Ireland’s history was the best way to prevent vandalism.

“I don’t think carving off sites behind fences or putting up CCTV is the way to stop this. Adequate signage and the opportunity to learn about what you’re visiting is key,” he said.

“The only way we will stop this is by educating people who are in the demographic who are likely to do this: probably younger people who like camping and the outdoors.”

“You don’t realise the importance of these places when you’re young but there will come a point in their lives in 10 or 15 years time when they become parents and later, grandparents, who will want these valued and cherished sites to be around for their kids and grandkids to see.”

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Article: Hidden room uncovered during renovations at Wexford’s historic Johnstown Castle

A beloved tourist attraction in the heart of Co Wexford, Johnstown Castle continues to throw up secrets and surprises.

The iconic building is currently undergoing some restoration works with new windows being installed throughout. It was while undertaking this job that workers from New Ross company National Gates & Joinery happened upon a major discovery.

They broke through a section of wall in the building to discover a hidden room which had sat untouched for more than 50 years.

Manager at Johnstown Castle, Brenda Comerford was excited by the discovery.

"Obviously this room has been covered up for a very long time,” she said. “We’re talking decades and decades. It’s part of one of the towers and looking around it, we think it was probably a small bedroom.”

"How it happened was we realised there was a window there that had to be replaced,” Brenda explains. “The most important thing with these old buildings is keeping the damp and the water out. Sometimes with buildings like this, a window would be added purely for symmetry, but when the guys from National Gates & Joinery broke through the wall to access the window, they discovered an entire room there.”

Work will now be carried out to assess the room and to see if it can be restored and included as part of the castle tours. It’s not the first secret that Johnstown Castle has turned up in recent times either.

"We’re finding out new things all the time out here,” Brenda said. “The castle really is vast and is such an impressive structure.

"Just last year we discovered a room under the tower at the lake which could only be accessed by boat. We’re discovering secrets all the time here at Johnstown Castle and that’s mainly thanks to the support of our members and the Department of Heritage who provide the funding so we can carry out these restoration works and secure the future of the castle.”

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The discovery was made purely as a result of the window repair works.

Article; 'Lasting damage' done to Deer Stone in Glendalough

Lasting damage has been caused to the Deer Stone in Glendalough, Co Wicklow, in what appears to be an act of vandalism, according to Project Manager for HeritageMaps.ie Pat Reid.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Philip Boucher-Hayes, Mr Reid said he believes someone lit a fire on the stone, which caused the boulder it is carved into to crack.

"There's four significant cracks running across it, and they may run quite deep.

"This is a significant problem in that if water gets into these cracks during winter the resulting freeze thaw will cleave the boulder that holds it apart, so it is a serious issue.

"There was some damage to it before, but it has really accelerated it," he said.

Mr Reid said the fire may have happened over a couple of nights, but was clearly deliberate based on the markings and discoloration on the stone.

He said it is not a comfortable area for camping, so the fire may have been set for cooking or merely to inflict damage.

Mr Reid said the original purpose of the stone is unknown, but it might have been used for food preparation or metal production.

They were repurposed into early Christian sites and have religious uses now as holy wells or Christening fonts. They may also have held cursing or curing stones in them.

He said it was hard to tell how deep the cracks run and if the rock will fall apart.

Mr Reid said it needs to be cleaned and assessed by a conservationist or agroecologist. They will assess if it can be repaired.

The monument will likely be fenced while it is assessed and repaired, he said.

"We cannot do that for every single monument in the country and they are disappearing at quite a rate, it is shocking, the absolute ignorance involved here.

"People know they are in a national monument, they still light a fire on it.

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'Lasting damage' done to Deer Stone in Glendalough Lasting damage has been caused to the Deer Stone in Glendalough, Co Wicklow, in what appears to be an act of vandalism, according to Project Manager for HeritageMaps.ie Pat Reid.

Article: Four arrested over theft of 483 Celtic gold coins from German museum

German authorities have arrested four suspects in the theft of hundreds of ancient gold coins from a museum in Bavaria last year.

Thieves broke into the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching and took 483 Celtic coins that were discovered during an archaeological dig nearby in 1999. The coins dated to around 100 BC.

Officials have said that cables were cut at a telecommunications hub and knocked out local networks before the heist, and that the thieves got in and out of the museum in nine minutes early on November 22 without raising the alarm.

Bavaria’s state interior ministry said raids were carried out in the Schwerin region of north-east Germany on Tuesday and four people were arrested.

The regional interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said the operation was an “outstanding investigative success” and that “professional thieves” were arrested.

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Four arrested over theft of 483 Celtic gold coins from German museum | BreakingNews.ie Thieves broke into the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching in November last year and took 483 Celtic coins.

Article: Archaeologists Discover Ancient 'Portal to the Underworld' In Cave Containing Skulls, Weapons

A cave in Israel "has all the cultic and physical elements necessary to serve as a possible portal to the underworld" and was used for necromancy.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of “a possible portal to the underworld,” where necromancy and other acts of cultic magic took place. The find is located in a cave near Jerusalem that contains ancient skulls, lamps, coins, and artifacts that span thousands of years, reports a new study.

Te’omim Cave, located in the Jerusalem Hills of Israel, was a vibrant site of devotion for pagans in the late Roman period some 2,000 years ago, though it also contains artifacts that are at least two millenia older.

The cave is a source of both legends and real historical dramas, as its natural springwater and cavernous chambers have attracted visitors since the Bronze Age and even served as a hideout for Jewish rebels during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE.

ince 2009, researchers have been excavating the site as part of a collaboration of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University and the Cave Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

During this time, the team has unearthed more than 120 intact oil lamps, along with weapons, coins, vessels, and three human craniums (skulls) with no signs of other skeletal remains. The lamps and skulls, along with other artifacts, were found wedged into deep crevices in the cave that suggest ancient peoples deliberately arranged them for a ritual purpose.

Eitan Klein and Boaz Zissu, archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority and Bar-Ilan University respectively, now “propose with due caution that necromancy ceremonies took place in the Te’omim Cave in the Late Roman period, and that the cave may have served as a local oracle (nekyomanteion) for this purpose,” according to a study published last week in the Harvard Theological Review.

The seemingly deliberate placement of artifacts in the cave hints that people performed necromancy ceremonies intended to raise the dead nearly 2,000 years ago, offering a new example of the so-called “archaeology of magic.”

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Archaeologists Discover Ancient 'Portal to the Underworld' In Cave Containing Skulls, Weapons A cave in Israel "has all the cultic and physical elements necessary to serve as a possible portal to the underworld" and was used for necromancy.

Article: Around 100 skeletal remains found in burial sites during excavations for new Dublin hotel

Around 100 skeletal remains from the Middle Ages were discovered in an area around Capel Street where St Mary’s Abbey once stood.

BURIAL SITES DATING back more than one thousand years have been discovered during excavations for a new hotel in Dublin city centre.

Around 100 skeletal remains from the Middle Ages were found in an area around Capel Street where an abbey, St Mary’s, once stood.

At least two of the remains are believed to date back to the early 11th century.

The abbey used by the Savigniac and Cistercian orders opened in the 12th century. Carbon dating of one of the graves discovered predates that by one hundred years, indicating the presence of a Christian settlement on the site prior to St Mary’s being built.

The excavations have been commissioned by the Beannchor hospitality group, which is developing its new Bullitt Dublin hotel on a site that once housed the old Boland’s Bakery.

The archaeological investigations also unearthed the foundations of buildings dating back to the 1600s.

he finds were discovered close to a former Presbyterian Meeting House dating from 1667.

Parts of a domestic house known as the ‘Dutch Billies’ has also been found. It was constructed around 1700 by settlers who came to Dublin after King William of Orange ascended to the English throne following the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

While the skeletal remains will be painstakingly excavated, cleaned and sent for further analysis, before ultimately being given to the National Monuments Services, the other structures found during the examination of the site are set to be incorporated into the design of the new hotel complex.

The 17th century Presbyterian Meeting House will be central to the development of a new bar and restaurant concept. The ‘Dutch Billies’ house will also be preserved while a building with surviving ovens from the Boland’s Bakery dating from 1890 will be renovated and repurposed.

Edmond O’Donovan, director of excavations for Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy (CDHC), described the significance of the finds.

“In its day, St Mary’s Abbey was Ireland’s largest and most wealthy medieval abbey,” he said.

“It was demolished after 1540 when the monastery was disbanded by Henry VIII and was later the site of a 17th century Presbyterian Meeting House.”

He added: “One of the things that was intriguing and exciting about the excavation is that we found an early burial or at least a number of burials that we suspect to be quite early.

“We have one that’s carbon dated to the 11th century and we have a second burial that was found with a diagnostic stick pin from the 11th century.

“And that suggests that there was an earlier Christian and potentially monastic foundation here which predates the Savigniac and Cistercian Abbey.”

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Around 100 skeletal remains found in burial sites during excavations for new Dublin hotel Around 100 skeletal remains from the Middle Ages were discovered in an area around Capel Street where St Mary’s Abbey once stood.

Ancient Neanderthal wall art discovered in French cave

Finger markings discovered inside a cave in France are "organised and intentional" and were likely made by Neanderthals more than 57,000 years ago, scientists have said.

Thought to be the oldest known engravings made by the extinct human relative, the marks were found on La Roche-Cotard cave walls in the Centre-Val de Loire region of northern France.

The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Plos One, add to evidence that Neanderthals were "complex and diverse as those of our own ancestors".

The authors wrote: "Fifteen years after the resumption of excavations at the La Roche-Cotard site, the engravings have been dated to over 57,000 years ago… making this the oldest decorated cave in France, if not Europe."

For the study, Jean-Claude Marquet, of the University of Tours in France, and his colleagues analysed the wall markings, also known as finger flutings.

The team created 3D models of the engravings and compared them with known human markings.

The researchers concluded that the wall markings were deliberate, based on their shape, spacing, and arrangement.

he types of markings found were circular, dotted, triangular and wavy.

The organised and intentional shapes may be symbolic creations, according to the researchers, although they added: "It is not possible for us to establish if they represent symbolic thinking."

"Nevertheless," the authors wrote, "Our understanding of the relationship between Neanderthals and the symbolic and even aesthetic realms has undergone a significant transformation over the past two decades and the traces preserved in the cave of La Roche-Cotard make a new and very important contribution to our knowledge of Neanderthal behaviour."

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Ancient Neanderthal wall art discovered in French cave Finger markings discovered inside a cave in France are "organised and intentional" and were likely made by Neanderthals more than 57,000 years ago, scientists have said.

Article; Ancient Maya city discovered in Mexican jungle

A previously unknown ancient Maya city has been discovered in the jungles of southern Mexico, the country's anthropology institute has said, adding it was likely an important centre more than a thousand years ago.

The city includes large pyramid-like buildings, stone columns, three plazas with "imposing buildings" and other structures arranged in almost-concentric circles, the INAH institute said.

INAH said the city, which it has named Ocomtun – meaning "stone column" in the Yucatec Maya language - would have been an important centre for the peninsula's central lowland region between 250AD and 1000 AD.

It is located in the Balamku ecological reserve on the country's Yucatan Peninsula and was discovered during a search of a largely unexplored stretch of jungle larger than Luxembourg.

The search took place between March and June using aerial laser mapping technology.

The Maya civilization, known for its advanced mathematical calendars, spanned southeast Mexico and parts of Central America. Widespread political collapse led to its decline centuries before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, whose military campaigns saw the last stronghold fall in the late 17th century.

The Ocomtun site has a core area, located on high ground surrounded by extensive wetlands, that includes several pyramid-like structures up to 15 meters high, lead archaeologist Ivan Sprajc said in a statement.

The city also had a ball court. Pre-Hispanic ball games, widespread throughout the Maya region, consist of passing a rubber ball representing the sun across a court without the use of hands and getting it through a small stone hoop. The game is believed to have had an important religious purpose.

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Ancient Maya city discovered in Mexican jungle A previously unknown ancient Maya city has been discovered in the jungles of southern Mexico, the country's anthropology institute has said, adding it was likely an important centre more than a thousand years ago.