Archaeologists excavating a looted pyramid tomb at the ruins of a little-known Mayan city in Guatemala discovered an interlocking jade mask, which could be evidence of a royal burial.
Two big plaques of jade, ceramic artifacts and bones, some of them carved with hieroglyphs, were also salvaged from the rubble, and carbon-dated to 350 AD.
According to the University of Alabama, Department of Anthropology, the discovery happened during the Holmul Archaeological Project (HAP) field season at the nearby site of Chochkitam.
@natgeo A stunning jade mask was found inside the tomb of a mysterious Maya king. The discovery in Chochkitam, Guatemala, sheds new light on an ancient society. Learn more at the 🔗 in bio. Hosts: Kristin Romey and Rubén Salgado Escudero
All the artifacts and bones discovered in the Chochkitam tomb were brought to the Holmul lab for cleaning and field analysis.
It was there that archaeologists put together the single blocks of jade that they had unearthed, and to their astonishment, they were able to reconstruct an entire jade mosaic mask.
University of Alabama epigraphist Alexandre Tokovinine helped decode the carvings on the bones. In one of them, the buried Maya king is reportedly seen holding the head of the same deity represented by the mask.
Jade mask buried with unidentified Maya King
The little-known archaeological site of Chochkitam is located near the Peten Basin, a subregion of the Maya Lowlands in northwestern Guatemala. The area is considered the heartland of the Maya Classic Period, which flourished between 200-900 AD.
Lead archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli of Tulane University and his team discovered the burial with the help of LIDAR mapping technology, the National Geographic reports in an extensive article, according to which the mask represents a manifestation of the Storm God worshiped by the Mayans.
The excavation was led by Bhanny Miranda, and the lab work by Bere Ni Ce, Estrada-Belli wrote in a Facebook post.
“The Maya never fail to amaze me. This find was miraculously missed by two looters’ tunnels. And now we know quite a bit more about early Maya history,” the experienced Guatemalan archaeologist added.
Excavations in the area have been ongoing since 2019, under Estrada-Belli’s direction, with a mission “to document and preserve the Maya past for the future and to train archaeologists from Guatemala and the rest of the world.”
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