Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2016

20 The time of making scientific discoveries by hashing together different elements with empirical methods, without the support of solid theo- retical bases but simply proceeding by trial and error, has long gone. Therefore, if a fifteen-year-old claims to have discovered a lost Mayan city just by simply consulting terrestrial and celestial atlases from the comfort of his own home, maybe we ought to take a closer look before endorsing such discovery. And this is what can happen if we don’t... by Michele Ferrara ARCHAEOASTRONOMY JULY-AUGUST 2016 Stars andMaya discovery