Overview
- Researchers led by Ivan Šprajc announced the discovery of Minanbé in late June 2026 after LiDAR surveys and a difficult ground approach that required clearing a multi-kilometre path through dense jungle.
- The documented site covers roughly 15 hectares and contains a 13-metre pyramidal temple, palatial structures, plazas, engineered water channels and carved monuments including a stone showing an apparent decapitation scene.
- Excavation teams report Minanbé was largely unplundered when reached, preserving context for its hieroglyphic texts and monuments that epigraphers expect will shed light on political events in the 600–900 CE late Classic period.
- Mexico’s INAH and the culture ministry are leading documentation, conservation planning and detailed analysis of inscriptions and dates, work that will determine Minanbé’s relationship to regional powers such as Calakmul.
- The discovery comes at a moment of heightened archaeological finds in Mexico and underscores how airborne LiDAR plus targeted fieldwork are revealing hidden settlements and prompting new questions about Maya settlement and water management.