Ruins of ancient palace in Mexico unearthed

摘要

Remnants of a royal palace in southern Mexico, dating to around 2,300 to 2,100 years ago, come from what must have been one of the Americas' earliest large, centralized governments, researchers say. Excavations completed in 2014 at El Palenque uncovered a palace with separate areas where a ruler conducted affairs of state and lived with his family, say archaeologists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Only a ruler of a bureaucratic state could have directed construction of this all-purpose seat of power, the investigators conclude online March 27 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.