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 In the northern part of the Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul, Campeche, archaeologists discovered what appear to be two ancient Mayan cities: Lagunita, which remained covered by lush vegetation for decades; and another unregistered urban center called Tamchén (“Deep Well”), named after the large number of “chultunes” (wells, or water holes) found in the area, some up to 13 meters deep. 
 
 
 
 These two inaccessible sites, hidden in the jungle, were found by an expedition led by Ivan Sprajc, of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC Sazu). 
 
 
 
 According to information provided by the Academy, the most striking feature of Lagunita is a zoomorphic monument depicting the gaping maw of a Mayan earth monster, which was associated with the underworld, water and fertility. There are also several monumental buildings, a Maya ball game court and a pyramid temple nearly 20 meters high, along with 10 trails that connect the various buildings and the three altars. 
 
 In Tamchén archaeologists found a concentration of chultunes throughout the civic and ceremonial center, some of which were reported as unusually deep. A pyramidal temple with a stela and an altar at the base supports substantial portions of the upper sanctuary. 
 
 Financing 
 
 The expedition, which was supported by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, was also supported by funding from the following persons and organizations: KJJ Charitable Foundation, Ken and Julie Jones (USA); Villas Firms (Austria); Ars Longa and Adria Kombi (Slovenia); Hotel Rio Bec Dreams (Mexico), and Martin and Aleš Obreza Hobel. 
 
 Working the ruins are Atasta archaeologists Octavio Esparza Flores Esquivel Olguin, architect Arianna Campiani, PhD students of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and Aleš Marsetic, surveyor of ZRC Sazu. 
 
 
 
 The facade of Lagunita is in good condition and can be compared with those at Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Hochob, as well as other archaeological sites in Campeche. Some of the monuments are well preserved and show hieroglyphic inscriptions. According to the preliminary reading of specialist Octavio Esparza, inscriptions on Lagunita’s Stela number 2 notes that the monument was erected in 711 AD by the ruler known as “Lord Katunes 4th”. 
 
 Discovery 
 
 http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2014/06/ancient-mayan-city-chactun-was-discovered-one-year-ago-in-campeche/), which extends over three thousand square miles between Rio Bec and Chenes, in the eastern part of the state of Campeche. Like Chactún, the Mayan city recently discovered by the same team of researchers (See the article published by the Yucatan Times on June 5th, 2014:Tamchén and Lagunita are located at the southern end of a large territory “unknown” from an archaeological point of view, 
 
 Its regional significance is determined by its architectural features and sculpted monuments, as well as by the large concentration of dwellings in the area. 
 
 
 
 According to the data gathered by the researchers, Tamchén and Lagunita had their heyday in the Late and Terminal Classic period (600-1000 AD). 
 
 Background 
 
 The site of Lagunita was visited in 1970 by American archaeologist Eric von Euw, but the results of his work were never published. In the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, sketches of zoomorphic sculpture, facade and some monuments were preserved, but the site location was unknown. 
 
 Atasta Archaeologists examined aerial photographs of the area and were able to identify Lagunita, comparing the monuments with Von Euw drawings that were provided by the Austrian researcher Karl Herbert Mayer. 
 
 
 
 Like Chactún, which was discovered last year, Lagunita and Tamchén have several “unusual” features that make them unique, and, in the opinion of researchers, this represents a challenge for future exploration in eastern Campeche. 
 
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 comments ||||| The ancient city of Lagunita, deep in the Yucatan jungle. (Courtesy of Ivan Sprajc) 
 
 In the 1970s, an American explorer named Eric Von Euw ventured into unexplored forest at the base of the Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula near the border of Guatemala. Called the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, it’s a sweeping expanse of trees and river that extends 2,800 square miles. What Von Euw returned with was remarkable. He had drawn images of an “extraordinary facade with an entrance representing open jaws of the earth monster,” as would later be written of it. 
 
 Von Euw would never publish the drawings. And despite several attempts to once again locate the “open jaws of the earth monster,” no one ever could. The site and the city that held it — which came to be known as “Lagunita” — was lost. It would become, according to Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, “a mystery.” 
 
 Now, four decades later, another explorer has ventured into the Yucatan jungle to find Lagunita. After a two-month expedition, archaeologist Ivan Sprajc of the Slovenian Academy emerged from the jungle with more than drawings. He had pictures. Along with another previously unknown city he named Tamchen, Sprajc had rediscovered Lagunita. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to have been “the seat of a relatively powerful polity,” a researcher said. 
 
 Why had it remained hidden for so long? “The information about Lagunita were vague and totally useless,” he told Discovery News. “In the jungle you can be as little as 600 feet from a large site and do not even suspect it might be there. Small mounds are all over the place, but they give you no idea about where an urban center might be.” 
 
 Though his expedition trudged into the forests with machetes, trucks and tortillas, a bird’s eye view is what discovered Lagunita. “We found the site with the aid of aerial photographs,” he explained in a statement, “but were able to identify it with Lagunita only after we saw the facade and the monuments and compared them with Von Euw’s drawings.” 
 
 Researchers: “Note the stylized eye of the earth monster and fangs along the doorway jamb.” (Courtesy of Ivan Sprajc) 
 
 The discoveries make for Sprajc’s second recent find in the region, which is still virtually unexplored and extremely difficult to traverse. Wearing what appears to be an adventure hat, the Slovenian explorer landed upon the ancient Mayan city of Chactun in 2013. Before that discovery, almost nothing was known about the archaeological treasures contained in the forests between the Rio Bec and Chenes regions, which boast architecture dating back to 600 A.D. 
 
 Aspects of Lagunita and the other ancient city of Tamchén — which means “deep well” in Yucatan Mayan — reflect the same architectural designs of the broader region, Sprajc said. Both appear to have been abandoned around 1000 A.D., and the most miraculous find was the “profusely decorated facade with a monster-mouth doorway,” the Slovenia Academy of Sciences and Arts said in a statement. They represent “the gaping maws of the earth and fertility deity.” 
 
 That sounds fairly profound. But what does it mean? “It represents a Maya earth deity related with fertility,” Sprajc explained in his interview with Discovery News. “These doorways symbolize the entrance to a cave and, in general, to the watery underworld, place of mythologized origin of maize and abode of ancestors.” 
 
 The abode of ancestors. Yes, that. 
 
 Just six kilometers away from Lagunita lay Tamchen. It’s home to several plazas rimmed by “voluminous buildings,” an “acropolis” and a pyramid-type temple. Some of the findings there signify that the city was first inhabited as long ago as 300 B.C., researchers contend. There were also more than 30 chultuns — chambers as deep as 43 feet that collected rainwater. 
 
 The archaeologists said both ancient cities are ripe for further research — as is the greater forest. 
 
 “Only future research in the extensive archaeologically unsurveyed region to the north may reveal whether such characteristics, which at the moment appear to be rather unique, were in fact common in a wider area,” the Slovenian Academy said. ||||| Like in Laguinita, plazas were surrounded by large buildings. These include the remains of an acropolis supporting a courtyard with three temples on its sides, and a pyramid temple with a well preserved sanctuary on top and a stela (pictured above). An altar at its base was also unearthed. Ancient Maya Buried Relatives, Artifacts Under Homes 
 
 More than 30 chultuns were found at the site. These are bottle-shaped underground chambers, largely intended for collecting rainwater. "Several chultuns were unusually deep, going down as far as 13 meters (43 feet)," Sprajc said. 
 
 Similarly imposing was the other city unearthed by Sprajc. The previously unknown city was named Tamchen, which means "deep well" in Yucatec Maya. Ancient Mayan Theater Was Political Tool 
 
 An inscription on one of these stelae reveals the stone was engraved on Nov. 29, 711 A.D. by a "lord of 4 k'atuns (20-year periods)." Unfortunately, the remaining text, which included the name of the ruler and possibly of his wife, is heavily eroded. 
 
 The archaeologists also found 10 stelae (tall sculpted stone shafts) and three altars (low circular stones) which featured well-preserved reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unearthed Mayan Tablet Tells of Power Struggle 
 
 Sprajc and his team also found the remains of a temple pyramid almost 65 feet high, a ball court and several massive palace-like buildings arranged around four major plazas. Giant Mayan Frieze Tells Ancient Guatemala Story 
 
 One of the cities featured an extraordinary facade with an entrance representing the open jaws of an earth monster. "It represents a Maya earth deity related with fertility. These doorways symbolize the entrance to a cave and, in general, to the watery underworld, place of mythological origin of maize and abode of ancestors," expedition leader Ivan Sprajc, of the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), told Discovery News. 
 
 Archaeologists have discovered two ancient Maya cities in the tropical forest of central Yucatan. The team unearthed stone monuments, inscriptions, temple pyramids and the remains of massive structures. Photos: Mayan City Remains Found in Forest 
 
 The monster mouth doorway at Lagunita. Note the stylized eye of the earth monster and fangs along the doorway jamb. 
 
 A monster mouth doorway, ruined pyramid temples and palace remains emerged from the Mexican jungle as archaeologists unearthed two ancient Mayan cities. 
 
 Found in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Campeche, in the heart of the Yucatan peninsula, the cities were hidden in thick vegetation and hardly accessible. 
 
 "Aerial photographs helped us in locating the sites," expedition leader Ivan Sprajc, of the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), said. 
 
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 Sprajc and his team found the massive remains as they further explored the area around Chactun, a large Maya city discovered by the Slovenian archaeologist in 2013. 
 
 No other site has so far been located in this area, which extends over some 1800 square miles, between the so-called Rio Bec and Chenes regions, both known for their characteristic architectural styles fashioned during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, around 600 - 1000 A.D. 
 
 One of the cities featured an extraordinary facade with an entrance representing the open jaws of an earth monster. 
 
 The site was actually visited in the 1970s by the American archaeologist Eric Von Euw, who documented the facade and other stone monuments with yet unpublished drawings. 
 
 However, the exact location of the city, referred to as Lagunita by Von Euw, remained lost. All the attempts at relocating it failed. 
 
 "The information about Lagunita were vague and totally useless," Sprajc told Discovery News. 
 
 "In the jungle you can be as little as 600 feet from a large site and do not even suspect it might be there; small mounds are all over the place, but they give you no idea about where an urban center might be," he added. 
 
 Laguinita was identified only after the archaeologists compared the newly found facade and monuments with Von Euw's drawings. 
 
 The monster-mouth facade turned to be one of the best preserved examples of this type of doorways, which are common in the Late-Terminal Classic Rio Bec architectural style, in the nearby region to the south. 
 
 "It represents a Maya earth deity related with fertility. These doorways symbolize the entrance to a cave and, in general, to the watery underworld, place of mythological origin of maize and abode of ancestors," Sprajc said. 
 
 He also found remains of a number of massive palace-like buildings arranged around four major plazas. A ball court and a temple pyramid almost 65 ft high also stood in the city, while 10 stelae (tall sculpted stone shafts) and three altars (low circular stones) featured well-preserved reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions. 
 
 According to preliminary reading by epigrapher Octavio Esparza Olguin from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, one of the stelae was engraved on November 29, A.D. 711 by a "lord of 4 k'atuns (20-year periods)." 
 
 Unfortunately, the remaining text, which included the name of the ruler and possibly of his wife, is heavily eroded. 
 
 "To judge by both architectural volumes and monuments with inscriptions, Lagunita must have been the seat of a relatively powerful polity, though the nature of its relationship with the larger Chactun, lying some 10 km to the north, remains unclear," Esparza Olguin said. 
 
 Similar imposing was the other city unearthed by Sprajc. Previously unknown, the city was named Tamchen, which means "deep well" in Yucatec Maya. 
 
 Indeed, more than 30 chultuns were found at the site. These are bottle-shaped underground chambers, largely intended for collecting rainwater. 
 
 "Several chultuns were unusually deep, going down as far as 13 meters," Sprajc said. 
 
 Like in Laguinita, plazas were surrounded by large buildings. These include the remains of an acropolis supporting a courtyard with three temples on its sides. A pyramid temple with a rather well preserved sanctuary on top and a stela and an altar at its base was also unearthed. 
 
 Tamchen appears to have been contemporaneous with Lagunita, although there is evidence for its settlement history going back to the Late Preclassic, between300 B.C. and 250 A.D. 
 
 "Both cities open new questions about the diversity of Maya culture, the role of that largely unexplored area in the lowland Maya history, and its relations with other polities," Sprajc said. 
 
 The work is a follow-up to the study of Archaeological Reconnaissance in Southeastern Campeche, Mexico. Directed by Sprajc since 1996, the 2014 campaign was supported by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Lead funding was provided by Ken and Julie Jones from their KJJ Charitable Foundation (USA); additional financial support was granted by private companies Villas (Austria), Hotel Río Bec Dreams (Mexico) and Ars longa and Adria Kombi (Slovenia), as well as by Martin Hobel and Aleš Obreza. 
 
 In June 2014, the southern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, where Sprajc discovered most of the currently known archaeological sites, was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a mixed natural and cultural property. ||||| *** A well-preserved monster-mouth façade and a number of stone monuments with hieroglyphic inscriptions were found at the site of Lagunita, rediscovered after having been lost for four decades. 
 
 *** The two ancient cities, each with various plazas surrounded by ruined pyramid temples and massive palaces, reached their climax during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (c. AD 600 – 1000). 
 
 *** Unusual features pose a challenge for future research. 
 
 In the tropical forest of central Yucatan peninsula, two large Maya sites have been discovered by an archaeological expedition led by Ivan Šprajc, of the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). While not very far from the modern towns of Xpujil and Zoh Laguna, in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Campeche, the two sites are located in the northern zone of the depopulated and hardly accessible Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. 
 
 One of the two sites had been visited in the 1970s by the American archaeologist Eric Von Euw, who documented several stone monuments and an extraordinary façade with an entrance representing open jaws of the earth monster, but the results of his work have never been published. His drawings, kept in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, USA, have been known to some specialists, but the exact location of the site, referred to as Lagunita by Von Euw, was a mystery. In spite of several attempts at relocating it, Lagunita remained lost until a few weeks ago, when rediscovered by Dr. Šprajc and his team. 
 
 “We found the site with the aid of aerial photographs,” Šprajc explains, “but were able to identify it with Lagunita only after we saw the façade and the monuments and compared them with Von Euw’s drawings, which the renowned Maya expert Karl Herbert Mayer made available for me.” 
 
 The other site located during the recently accomplished fieldwork had never before been reported. The archaeologists baptized it with the name Tamchén, which means “deep well” in Yucatec Maya, in allusion to the presence of more than 30 chultuns (bottle-shaped underground chambers, largely intended for collecting rainwater), some of them as deep as 13 m. 
 
 During the two-month field season, Šprajc was assisted by geodesist Aleš Marsetič, researcher at ZRC SAZU, archaeologists Atasta Flores Esquivel and Octavio Esparza Olguín, and architect Arianna Campiani, Ph. D. students at the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM), as well as several local workers. 
 
 Lagunita and Tamchén are situated in the southern portion of a vast, archaeologically unexplored territory in central Yucatan lowlands. Except for Chactún, the large Maya city discovered by Šprajc’s team in 2013, no other site has so far been located in this area, which extends over some 3000 sq. km, between the so-called Río Bec and Chenes regions, both known for their characteristic architectural styles in vogue during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (c. A.D. 600 – 1000). 
 
 Aside from a ball court and a temple pyramid almost 20 m high, the core area of Lagunita has a number of massive palace-like buildings arranged around four major plazas. The most spectacular feature is a profusely decorated façade with a monster-mouth doorway. Representing the gaping maws of the earth and fertility deity, these zoomorphic portals characterize both Chenes and Río Bec architectural styles, most prominent examples being those at Chicanná, Hormiguero, Hochob and Tabasqueño. “The Lagunita façade is very well preserved, and we accurately documented all the details using 3D photo scanning technique,” Arianna Campiani commented. 
 
 Also found at Lagunita were 10 stelae and three altars, some of them with well-preserved reliefs, including hieroglyphic inscriptions. “The date on Stela 2 corresponds to A.D. 711, suggesting that Lagunita flourished contemporarily with the nearby Chactún, where we also found monuments with dates falling in the eighth century,” says project epigrapher Octavio Esparza. “To judge by both architectural volumes and monuments with inscriptions, Lagunita must have been the seat of a relatively powerful polity, though the nature of its relationship with the larger Chactún, lying some 10 km to the north, remains unclear.” The importance of Lagunita is further attested by the great density of residential mounds, terraces, albarradas (low dry walls) and other settlement remains in the surrounding area. 
 
 Similarly imposing is the site of Tamchén, located about 6 km northeast of Lagunita: there are several plazas surrounded by voluminous buildings, including a pyramid temple with a rather well preserved sanctuary on top and a stela and an altar at its base, as well as an acropolis supporting a courtyard with three temples on its sides. While Tamchén seems to have been largely contemporaneous with Lagunita, both the triadic compound and surface ceramics indicate its settlement history goes back to the Late Preclassic (c. 300 B.C. – A.D. 250). 
 
 Just like Chactún, Lagunita and Tamchén have a number of aspects that make them very promising for future research. The zoomorphic façade at Lagunita does not come as a surprise, considering that Becán, the largest site in the Río Bec zone, is only 15 km away. What has not been expected, however, is the presence of so many pyramid temples and monuments with inscriptions, which are rare in the Río Bec región. Both Tamchén and Lagunita appear to have been largely abandoned around A.D. 1000, sharing the fate of other lowland Maya polities, but a few stelae were modified some time after they had been originally erected, and Postclassic offerings were found at others. These facts obviously reflect continuities and ruptures in cultural traditions, but their significance for understanding political geography and history of the region is yet to be explained. 
 
 Particularly interesting are various elements that have not been known elsewhere in the Maya area. Two altars of Lagunita have a curious nail-head shape. The third one is rectangular and has a series of Ajaw glyphs on its sides, with coefficients evidently referring to successive k’atun (20-year period) endings; such records are common in codices, but not on stone monuments. Whereas hieroglyphic texts normally appear in an even number of columns, the inscription on Stela 2 of Lagunita has three, and the Long Count date is incomplete. At Tamchén, dozens of chultuns are scattered in two plazas; some are partially collapsed or filled-in with material accumulating through centuries, but others are even nowadays 10 or more meters deep. Whereas chultuns are common at Maya sites, their depths and high concentration within the civic and ceremonial center of the ancient settlement represent a peculiarity of Tamchén. Only future research in the extensive archaeologically unsurveyed region to the north may reveal whether such characteristics, which at the moment appear to be rather unique, were in fact common in a wider area. 
 
 Representing a follow-up of the project of Archaeological Reconnaissance in Southeastern Campeche, Mexico, directed by Ivan Šprajc since 1996, the 2014 field season was approved and supported by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Lead funding was provided by Ken and Julie Jones from their KJJ Charitable Foundation (USA); additional financial support was granted by private companies Villas (Austria), Hotel Río Bec Dreams (Mexico) and Ars longa and Adria Kombi (Slovenia), as well as by Martin Hobel and Aleš Obreza. 
 
 In June 2014, the southern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, where most of the currently known archaeological sites were discovered in field surveys headed by Šprajc in recent years, was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a mixed natural and cultural property. 
 
 Preliminary 3D model of Tamchén, looking north (by Aleš Marsetič) 
 
 Tamchén, Structure 1, north side 
 
 Tamchén, Structure 1, remains of upper sanctuary 
 
 Tamchén, Stela 1 
 
 Tamchén, chultún 
 
 Camp near Tamchén 
 
 Preliminary 3D model of Lagunita, looking northeast (by Aleš Marsetič) 
 
 Lagunita, zoomorphic portal, left side, looking east. Note the stylized eye of the earth monster and fangs along the doorway jamb 
 
 Lagunita, zoomorphic portal, right side, looking southeast 
 
 Lagunita, zoomorphic portal, looking northeast. A wooden lintel is partially preserved above the monster's eye 
 
 Lagunita, Stela 1, front 
 
 Lagunita, Stela 2, front 
 
 Lagunita, Stela 4, lower fragment, front 
 
 Lagunita, Stela 4, gornji fragment, leva stran 
 
 Lagunita, Stela 4, upper fragment, left side 
 
 Lagunita, Altar 1, west face with glyphs 4 Ajaw and 2 Ajaw 
 
 Lagunita, Structure 1, north side 
 
 Field vehicle upon finishing fieldwork
– Archaeologists have long known of a "lost" Mayan city boasting an incredible "earth monster" facade—and now someone has found it. Slovenian explorer Ivan Sprajc came out of the Yucatan jungle in Mexico with photos of the city, Lagunita, and a second, previously unknown city he's calling Tamchen, the Washington Post reports. Both were apparently abandoned around 1,000 AD along with other cities in the area. But only Lagunita has the "profusely decorated facade with a monster-mouth doorway," as the Slovenia Academy of Sciences and Arts puts it. The facade depicts "the gaping maws of the earth and fertility diety." Which diety is that, again? "A Maya earth deity related with fertility," Sprajc tells Discovery News. "These doorways symbolize the entrance to a cave and, in general, to the watery underworld, place of mythologized origin of maize and abode of ancestors." An American explorer spotted the city (and its famous mouth) in the 1970s, but no one had been able to retrace his steps in the dense jungle. Now we have Lagunita, with its "monumental buildings," game court for Maya ball, and roughly 65-foot-high pyramid, the Yucatan Times reports. Judging by its buildings and inscriptions on monuments, "Lagunita must have been the seat of a relatively powerful polity," says an expert on the project. (A monster mouth, sure, but there's no sign this time of the evil eye.)