About two thousand years ago in North America the Mayan people in what is now Mexico were already using large-scale sophisticated water filtration systems using natural zeolite. A zeolite filtration system discovered at Tikal’s Corriental reservoir is the oldest known example of water purification in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest known use of zeolite for decontaminating drinking water in the world.

The Mayans were apparently using a natural zeolite water filtration system to purify drinking water for the 100,000 or so people who were living in the city of Tikal. Tikal was in the middle of a jungle, a humid tropical environment with drinking water contaminated by harmful volcanic ash, microbes and toxic mineral leachates.

This zeolite filtration system was a source of clean and safe drinking water for the people of Tikal for over a thousand years. This water filtration technology predates Sir Robert Bacon's first sand filter by almost two thousand years!

Original Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75023-7