Modern-day imaging technology is able to uncover ancient buildings and structures not visible on the surface, and we just got another excellent example: the discovery of a hidden neighborhood in one of the biggest historical Maya cities.

现代成像技术能够发现表面看不见的古代建筑和结构，我们刚刚得到了另一个极好的例子：在玛雅历史上最大的城市之一发现了一个隐藏的街区。

The city in question is Tikal, now in Guatemala. Thought to have been one of the most dominant settlements in the ancient Maya empire, particularly between 200-900 CE, at its peak it could have had as many as 90,000 people living there.

这个城市叫蒂卡尔，现在在危地马拉。它曾被认为是古玛雅帝国最主要的定居点之一，尤其是在公元200-900年之间，在鼎盛时期曾有多达9万人居住在那里。

Using LIDAR scanning equipment, researchers found evidence of development under what was thought to be a natural area. What's more, the hidden ruins look to match the style of buildings in Teotihuacan – a sprawling metropolis established centuries before the rise of the Aztecs, built by a largely unknown culture.

利用激光雷达扫描设备，研究人员发现了在被认为是自然区域下发展的证据。更重要的是，隐藏的废墟看起来与特奥蒂瓦坎的建筑风格相符。特奥蒂瓦坎是一座在阿兹特克人崛起前几个世纪建立的大都市，由一种未知的文化建造而成。

That could give researchers some useful clues as to how these two cities interacted. Even though they were more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away from each other, it's already known that traders traveled between the two urban centers.

这可以为研究人员提供一些有用的线索，以了解这两个城市是如何相互影响的。尽管两座城市相距1000多公里(621英里)，但人们已经知道两个城市中心之间有商人往来。

What makes the finding even more surprising is that Tikal has been extensively searched and explored since the 1950s – it's one of the ancient cities that we know most about. And all this time, there was part of it hidden from view.

这一发现更令人惊讶的是，自20世纪50年代以来，人们对蒂卡尔进行了广泛的搜索和探索——它是我们最了解的古城之一。而在这段时间里，有一部分是隐藏在视线之外的。

The excavations revealed that the Tikal buildings were made out of mud plaster rather than the traditional Maya limestone, suggesting some attempt to build replicas. They also matched the specific 15.5-degree east-of-north orientation of Teotihuacan's buildings.

挖掘发现，蒂卡尔建筑是用泥灰而不是传统的玛雅石灰岩建造的，这表明有人试图建造复制品。它们还与Teotihuacan建筑北向东15.5度的特定方向相匹配。

Adding to the intrigue is the detail that Teotihuacan armies conquered Tikal in the late 4th century. It's clear that relationships ended badly between the two influential cities, but it's not certain what happened in the hundreds of years before that.

特奥蒂瓦坎的军队在4世纪末征服了蒂卡尔，这为故事增添了悬念。很明显，这两个有影响力的城市之间的关系以糟糕的方式结束，但不确定在那之前的几百年里发生了什么。

As well as helping historians dig deeper into the past, the new study is also an opportunity to explore one of the most discussed topics of the modern day: colonialism, and how dominant political and economic systems are felt further around the world. Meanwhile, research at Tikal continues.

除了帮助历史学家更深入地挖掘过去，这项新研究也是一个探索当代最热门话题之一的机会:殖民主义，以及世界各地的主导政治和经济体系是如何被进一步感受到的。与此同时，蒂卡尔的研究仍在继续。