Mexican experts say they have detected the ruins of almost 2,500 pre-Hispanic structures and 80 burial sites on just one-sixth of the route of the president’s controversial “Maya Train” project on the Yucatan peninsula.
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History did not say whether any of the remains were disturbed or destroyed by the train project, which in some places runs alongside existing rail lines.
It described the ruins as being “on the edge of the project.”
Potential damage to the environment and archaeological sites are some of the reasons why critics oppose the project pushed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The finds range from pottery and simple stone outlines of thatched pre-Hispanic Maya homes to ceremonial platforms. Archaeologists said they were particularly impressed by the find of two ceramic vessels with handles or bases in the shape of human breasts.
The sites were detected on the first, 140-mile (228-kilometer) stretch of the 950-mile (1,500- kilometer) train line that will run in a rough loop around Yucatan.
That first stretch runs from the Mayan ruins of Palenque to the highway crossroad at Escarcega.
