George Bey: Maya history inaccurate: 25-06-2008
Archaeologist George Bey, of Millsaps College in Missouri, has questioned whether the Mexican region of Puuc was inhabited before the collapse of the Mayan civilisation.
Contrary to the belief that the Mayans moved north into Puuc when they abandoned their cities around 900 AD, Bey has suggested that the region may have already been inhabited for centuries before.
Bey is co-leading a dig at the abandoned Mayan city of Kiuic with Mexican National Institute of Archaeology and History archaeologist Tomas Gallareta.
His team have discovered evidence of Mayan settlements dating back to before 800 BC and he says this shows those previous hypotheses are inaccurate.
"Our work indicates that instead the Puuc region was occupied for almost 2,000 years before the collapse in the south," said Bey in an email to USA Today.
"It is both the number of sites we are finding as well as that some of them produced large-scale monumental architecture - pyramids and an acropolis - while others have ball courts."
Evidence includes buildings, ceramics and trade items, but it is the discovery of large cities that has excited archaeologists and changed perceptions of the area's history
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