Ancient Mayans may have used fountains and toilets

Washington, December 26 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have suggested that the ancient Mayans may have had enough engineering know-how to master running water, creating fountains and even toilets by controlling water pressure.

According to a report in Live Science, for the research, the scientists investigated the Mayan center at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico.

At its height, this major site, inhabited from roughly 100 to 800 AD, had some 1,500 structures - residences, palaces, and temples - holding some 6,000 inhabitants under a series of powerful rulers.

The center at Palenque also had what was arguably the most unique and intricate system of water management known anywhere in the Maya lowlands.

These involved elaborate subterranean aqueducts to deal with the spring-fed streams that naturally divide the landscape and could otherwise cause flooding or erosion.

"The ancient Maya called this city 'Lakamha' or 'Big Water' because of its nine perennial waterways, 56 springs, and hundreds of meters of cascades," said researcher Kirk French, an archaeologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

One peculiar finding at Palenque was a buried, spring-fed conduit some 216 feet long (66 m).

While other aqueducts under the site's main plaza stayed relatively level and maintained a roughly constant width, the rectangular conduit was located on a steep slope and abruptly narrowed at its end.

Assuming this sloping conduit was smoothly plastered as the aqueducts were at Palenque, the researchers calculated the resulting water pressure could drive a fountain shooting water roughly 20 feet high (6 m).

"This finding is yet another technological achievement made by the Maya independently of the Old World," French said.

"The Maya of Palenque had water pressure technology by 750 AD at the very latest and most likely much earlier," he added.

French noted it has been speculated for decades that the palace in Palenque had running water for toilets.

"Getting running water to the palace was impossible without water pressure," he said.

Because of this new find, "the toilet theory isn't so far-fetched," he added.

Running water would have been a luxury, not a necessity.

"I actually think that the creation of water pressure at Palenque was a sign of wealth," French said.

"It was definitely not necessary. They had water everywhere. The Maya of Palenque were never more than 150 meters (492 feet) from a source of water. Water pressure technology would have been useful through the display of power and knowledge, similar to how priests and shamans used astronomical events," he added. (ANI)