MEXICO CITY, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Scientists investigating an ancient Mayan city in Mexico say they've uncovered water reservoirs using a no-leak technology not seen before in similar sites.
Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany and Mexican archaeologists say two 1,000-square-foot reservoirs called "aguadas" in the Mayan city of Uxul have painstakingly laid ceramic bottoms, a university release said Thursday.
"We conducted a trial dig in the center of one of the water reservoirs," Nicolaus Seefeld, a Bonn researcher, said. "We found that the bottom, which is at a depth of 2 meters (6.5 feet), was covered with ceramic shards -- probably from plates -- practically without any gaps.
"But we don't know yet whether it's like this throughout the entire aguada."
If so, the quantity of ceramics required would be impressive, given the area of the bottom of the two reservoirs.
They needed to be large, as they had to hold enough water to see at least 2,000 inhabitants of the Yucatan peninsula city through a three-month dry season, scientists say.
