Archaeologists Discover Tomb of Maya Queen Lady K’abel in Guatemala

During excavations of the royal Maya city of El Perú-Waka’ in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, an international team of archaeologists has discovered the tomb of Lady K’abel, one of the great queens of Classic Maya civilization.

El Perú-Waka’, located approximately 75 km west of the famous city of Tikal, is an ancient Maya city in northwestern Petén, Guatemala.

It was part of Classic Maya civilization (200-900 AD) in the southern lowlands and consists of nearly a square kilometer of plazas, palaces, temple pyramids and residences surrounded by many square kilometers of dispersed residences and temples.

A small, carved alabaster jar found in the burial chamber caused the archaeologists to conclude the tomb was that of Lady K’abel. The white jar is carved as a conch shell, with a head and arm of an aged woman emerging from the opening. The depiction of the woman, mature with a lined face and a strand of hair in front of her ear, and four glyphs carved into the jar, point to the jar as belonging to K’abel.

“Based on this and other evidence, including ceramic vessels found in the tomb and stela carvings on the outside, the tomb is likely that of K’abel,” said Prof David Freidel of Washington University in St. Louis, co-director of the expedition.

“The discovery is significant not only because the tomb is that of a notable historical figure in Maya history, but also because the newly uncovered tomb is a rare situation in which Maya archaeological and historical records meet.”

“The Classic Maya civilization is the only ‘classical’ archaeological field in the New World — in the sense that like archaeology in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia or China, there is both an archaeological material record and an historical record based on texts and images. The precise nature of the text and image information on the white stone jar and its tomb context constitute a remarkable and rare conjunction of these two kinds of records in the Maya area,” he explained.

The discovery of the tomb of the great queen was “serendipitous, to put it mildly,” Prof Freidel said.

Left and center: the carved alabaster vessel found in the tomb of Lady K’abel, shown from two sides (David Freidel, Juan Carlos Pérez et al.) Right: drawing of the Glyphs on the back of the alabaster vessel. The text consists of four hieroglyphs. The first one was inscribed half on the body of the alabaster vessel and half on its lid, and erosion patterns along the edge of the lid indicates that it saw considerable use before being deposited in the tomb. This use wear has badly damaged the first hieroglyph but enough remains to read it as yotoot, ‘the house of’, and the second glyph should refer to the original contents of the vessel. The name of the owner of this alabaster vessel appears in the final two hieroglyphs of this text. The first is the personal name, and while this cannot be read full phonetically in the ancient Classic Mayan language, it can be translated as Lady Waterlily-Hand. The final glyph is a female version of the Calakmul Emblem Glyph, reading Ix Kan Ajaw, or Lady Snake Lord and identifying Lady Waterlily-Hand as a princess of Calakmul. This is almost certainly an alternative spelling of the name of Lady K’abel, as both names consist of hands holding waterlilies and both are titled as princesses of Calakmul (Stanley Guenter)


GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe

Thanks csvset. Warrior queen's tomb in Guatemala gives up Mayan secrets Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

“Maya Queen Lady K’abel...”

Possible translation error, given the appetitive behavior of such savages in that area, a far more accurate name would have been Queen “K’nabel” not “K’able”.

The Devil is in the details.

“Clinton will be there in a day-and-a-half.”

Had Clinton arrived amongst that particular bunch of savages, at that particular time in history:
1. First: “Clinton will be on the sacrificial pyramid in a day-and-a-half.”
2. Followed by: “Clinton lost his heart in a day-and-a-half.”

For some reason, Central American ‘people’ have an arguably savage tendency to indulge in the cruelest of butchery of other humans. From the savage spectacle enacted daily on the cannibal rituals of the Mayans to the daily butcheries in the Messico of today, a case can be made that something is seriously and dangerously warped in the soi dissant “Bronze People”.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.