Clovis Comet Debate - The Archaeological Conservancy

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In theNEWS
Maya Tomb Discovered
Sixteen hundred-year-old tomb may house a king.
well-preserved burial chamber
discovered at the base of a
pyramid in Guatemala could
hold the remains of a founder of a Maya
dynasty who was buried 1,600 years
ago. The tomb is packed with carvings,
ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six
children who may have been sacrificed
at the time of the king’s death.
“It’s clearly the tomb of a Mayan
king,” said Stephen Houston, a Brown
University archaeologist who is directing
the excavation. “From the tomb’s
position, time, richness, and repeated
construction atop the tomb, we believe
this is very likely the founder of a
dynasty.” If so, it would be one of the
few to be discovered.
Archaeologists uncovered the
tomb, which dates from about a.d.
350–400, beneath the El Diablo pyramid
in the town of El Zotz in northern
Guatemala, last May. They found a
series of caches filled with blood red
bowls that contained human fingers
and teeth wrapped in an organic substance
that left an impression in the
plaster. According to Houston, these
may have been symbolic food offerings.
A ceramic bowl depicting the head
of the Maya Maize God.
This ceramic vessel depicting a supernatural figure was uncovered at the site.
They continued digging through
layers of flat stones alternated with
mud until they reached a small hole
that led into the tomb. “When I entered
for the first time, what struck me was
the smell of putrefaction. You can still
smell things that were rotting,” he said.
No air and little water had entered the
well-sealed chamber in 1,600 years.
The tomb was filled with “all sorts of
bizarre organics” including pieces of
wood, textiles, painted stucco, and cord
that they had never seen before. These
are lost art forms that ordinarily would
not have survived, Houston said.
The primary occupant of the sixfeet-high,
four-feet-wide, 12-feet-long,
tomb was an adult, probably a male.
His teeth were embedded with jade,
which is unusual, and hematite, according
to Andrew Scherer, an anthropologist
at Brown University, who is
studying the remains. The man’s body
rested on a raised bier that had collapsed.
He was dressed like a ritual
dancer, a major role of kings, with belllike
ornaments made of shells and clappers
made from canine teeth. His body
had been painted red, a color commonly
used in royal burials, according
to Scherer. As the flesh decayed, the
Two teeth from the royal tomb. The left one
is inset with hematite, the right with two
pieces of jade.
pigment stained his bones.
The man may also have worn an
elaborate headdress with small glyphs,
and he might have held a sacrificial
blade. The surface of the blade is
covered with red organic residue. “It
doesn’t take too much imagination to
think that this is blood,” Houston said.
Based on dental analysis, four of
the children were ages one to three,
and the others about five years old.
“Royal tombs require years of
study to understand,” Houston said,
“we still have a great deal of work to
do.” —Paula Neely
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