Melksham explorer discovers hidden Mayan city

A MELKSHAM man has helped to discover an ancient unrecorded Mayan city in a jungle in Central America. 

Whilst on an expedition through the Petén jungle in Guatemala in February, Matt Hill – who runs his own expedition company and a local martial arts school – and a team of 20 people found artefacts inside what is believed to be a royal burial chamber. 

A Mayan pot and a royal burial plate, which are estimated to date back around 1,500 years, were found inside the chamber. 

“We were all quite dumfounded by the discovery,” said Matt, who is an ex-Captain from the Parachute Regiment. “We couldn’t believe what we were witnessing.” 

Matt and his team were accompanied on the expedition by a small group of local guides, which included Carlos Vivar, an expert on Mayan civilisation and ruins, who has previously presented to the Royal Geographical Society in the UK.  

According to Matt, Carlos has said that the royal find could be one of the most important Mayan sites he has ever found. Carlos plans to use the artefacts found at the site to convince local authorities that the site is worth further exploration and excavation. 

“With Matt’s team, we were able to go deeper into the jungle than I have ever taken anyone in 25 years of being a guide,” said Carlos. 

“Due to the skills and experience of the team we were able to spend 7 days walking deep into the jungle, as opposed to having to come back out each day. This enabled us to discover sites that are previously unrecorded, that will undoubtedly hold priceless information and artefacts. I am excited to go back and excavate them.” 

Although Carlos recognised that there were signs of a ‘hidden’ city from the topography of the land the expedition team were walking over, discovery of the burial chamber was made possible by signs of looting in the area. 

“Carlos found looting chambers,” explains Matt, “which we went down into – this is where we found the pot and an almost fully intact royal burial plate, which Carlos could not believe. 

“Carlos believes that we found the plate intact as when the looters found the plate, they would have found on top of it a royal Mayan burial mask of the King – that would have been worth multiple millions to a private collector. So, they would have struck gold, and left everything else, as nothing else would be as valuable. 

“That’s why this site is so valuable to Carlos, as now that they know the site is royal, there will be so much information and other artefacts to be found – he was quite emotional.” 

It has been proposed that the Mayan city be named ‘The City of System-Maya’ – a nod to Matt’s martial arts school here in Melksham, The Systema Academy.