Archaeologist Šprajc returns to Yucatan for vital answers about the Maya

Šprajc has been leading archaeological research in the Yucatan peninsula for more than 20 years. His latest expedition to the region bordering Guatemala, which is covered in a thick tropical rainforest, was between March and May, and he presented his findings to reporters in Ljubljana last week.

"This time we set out to explore Maya villages and daily life ... Our intention was to find answers to more vital questions about the economy, trade links," says Šprajc, who heads the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Šprajc's team established not only that the region was densely populated, but they also discovered a series of agricultural modifications of the terrain such as terraces, plot divisions and channels, which Šprajc says appear to have served for irrigation or drainage.

The...