The various experts didn't actually debunk it. One gave a plausible alternate explanation of something else (an abandoned walled cornfield) which could result in a (roughly) rectangular satellite image, which was backed up by a second person. But the actual aerial photograph provided as evidence was of a structure that was far from the perfectly rectangular, unlike the "giant pyramid" being disputed. Such imprecision is unsurprising, given that such fields - as with medieval assarts into virgin forest - would hardly be laid out with architectural precision. Also, no alternate explanation of the 36 surrounding "smaller structures" was offered. To be evident through the jungle canopy, such structures would need to be substantial in their own right . . . which would hardly be the case for rude shelters constructed by poor farmers around a cornfield.
The other "debunker" pointed out that we don't know what constellations the Maya recognized. While true, that is also misleading. If the kid managed to match up the locations of 117 Maya sites with apparent-to-the-naked-eye star patterns, that would seem to me to be fairly good evidence that he's discovered at least some of the "lost" Mayan constellations.
Earlier today news splashed all over about a 15 year old kid in Quebec who had found a lost Mayan city by matching up constellations to city locations :
<http://gizmodo.com/teen-discovers-lost-maya-city-using-ancient-star-maps-1775735999>
It didn’t take long for actual experts to debunk it (see updates at the bottom of that page) but it does spark some oBtravs:
1) a megacorp sets up some stores in a new market only to discover that no one will shop in them. Eventually they discover that they’re considered ‘bad luck sites’ because they do/don’t line up with some random geological or astronomical configuration.
2) The PC’s are hired by wealthy, crazy person to help prove his ‘theory’ that ancient sites are laid out according to some fantastically complex formula, and he’s certain that a huge one lies on one continent on the planet below. Which happens to be redzoned for an entirely different reason….(like whoops, it was an Imperial genetics research base until something got out of control and it’s now over-run with highly intelligent velociraptors with cuttlefish shape-changing genes who are able to teleport short distances) or (insert favorite DOOM level here…) :-).
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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