Maya Plumbing = Oldest Pressurized Water In New World

Posted by on May 5th, 2010

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The Maya people were forerunners on a lot of concepts. You can add piping pressurized water all over the place to that list.

A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.

“Water pressure systems were previously thought to have entered the New World with the arrival of the Spanish,” the researchers said in a recent issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. “Yet, archaeological data, seasonal climate conditions, geomorphic setting and simple hydraulic theory clearly show that the Maya of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, had empirical knowledge of closed channel water pressure predating the arrival of Europeans.”

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

[Science Daily]

One Response to “Maya Plumbing = Oldest Pressurized Water In New World”

  1. Marty Says:

    Kinda reminds me of some ancient Alien drawings wich also left behind some of the most engenius water system build, even if you compare them of today's time, those were still better, and that was over 29,000 years ago ! Maybe I'll post it.