April 26, 2024
Using environmental DNA analysis, researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah. The plants, known for their religious associations and medicinal properties, were discovered beneath a plaza floor upon which a ballcourt was built, suggesting the building might have been blessed or consecrated during construction.
June 22, 2021
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati say Tikal’s reservoirs — critical sources of city drinking water — were lined with trees and wild vegetation that would have provided scenic natural beauty in the heart of the ancient Maya city. UC developed a novel system to analyze ancient plant DNA in the sediment of Tikal’s temple and palace reservoirs to identify more than 30 species of trees, grasses, vines and flowering plants that lived along its banks more than 1,000 years ago. Their findings painted a picture of a lush, wild oasis.
June 24, 2022
University of Cincinnati researchers found evidence of sustainable agriculture and forestry spanning a millennia in one ancient Mayan city.
October 27, 2022
The ancient Maya’s Calakmul once was the biggest city in the Americas, full of apartment complexes, temples and shrines stretching across an area the size of Washington, D.C. New mapping tools are giving an international team of scientists their first complete look at the scale and complexity of the enormous metropolis hidden beneath centuries of rainforest.
June 26, 2020
A diverse team of biologists, chemists, anthropologists and geographers from the University of Cincinnati identified toxic mercury and algae in two central reservoirs of Tikal, an ancient Maya city, in the ninth century shortly before the city was abandoned.
October 27, 2021
University of Cincinnati interdisciplinary research reveals ancestral puebloans in ancient Chaco Canyon interacted with local ecosystem to thrive for more than a millennium, but unsustainable deforestation practices likely contributed to destabilizing environmental impact prior to their final exodus.
October 22, 2020
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati discovered evidence of a sophisticated filtration system in the ancient Maya city of Tikal in what is now northern Guatemala.
August 31, 2020
The University of Cincinnati found that satellite imagery can identify nonnative and invasive Amur honeysuckle, an ornamental shrub introduced from Asia that has spread in forests across much of the United States.
December 15, 2022
University of Cincinnati President Neville Pinto's message to end 2022 includes a celebration of the top news, video, research and giving from the year.