Mysterious Mayan structure discovered underground in Mexico

Archaeologists have discovered a mysterious underground structure with painted walls hidden beneath a Mayan ball court in Mexico that was once played by the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples.

Archaeologists used advanced aerial laser scanning techniques to see what lay beneath a previously discovered ancient ball court in Campeche, Mexico, and found the mysterious structure.

The exploration focused on a plot of approximately 140 square kilometers in the Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve.

The structure dates back to the Early Classic period of the Maya civilization between 200 and 600 AD, and could provide insight into life in South America before the Spanish conquest, according to a statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.

“We found parts of an earlier building with painted walls,” archaeologist Evan Sprajc of the Institute for Anthropological and Spatial Studies told Live Science. “Only additional excavations may reveal the form and function of this basic building. The unavoidable impression is that the Maya culture in this area that we have just discovered was significantly less elaborate than in Petén, to the south, and the areas of Chinch and Chactun, to the north and east.”

Scientists suspect the structure may have been "important," given that ball courts are typically found only at major Maya sites and are centers of regional political organization.

They said the ancient site probably experienced its highest levels of occupancy during the Late Classic and Final periods, around AD 600-1000, due to late migrations and population growth into more suitable surrounding areas.

On top of this pyramid structure, the scientists found artifacts, including ceramic vessels, a ceramic animal leg and a flint blade.

These artifacts, which were probably left as offerings, date to around 1250-1524 AD in the Late Postclassic period shortly before the Spanish conquest.

The elements at the top of the pyramid indicate a weak population presence after a long period in which the central lowlands suffered political disintegration and radical demographic decline in the centuries before the arrival of Europeans, the scientists said.