Posted on 08/05/2010 8:56:07 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
A well-preserved tomb believed to be the final resting place of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala, scientists announced last week.
The 1,600-year-old tomb was discovered on May 29 beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz. It is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who might have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death.
However, much more work is needed before the scientists can piece together all the clues about the tomb's owner.
"We still have a great deal of work to do," said Stephen Houston an archaeologist at Brown University in Rhode Island. "We've only been out of the field for a few weeks, and we're still catching our breath after a very difficult, technical excavation. Royal tombs are hugely dense with information and require years of study to understand."
Before making the actual discovery, Houston said the team thought "something odd" was happening in the deposit where they were digging. They knew a small temple had been built in front of a sprawling structure dedicated to the sun god, an emblem of Maya rulership.
"When we sunk a pit into the small chamber of the temple, we hit almost immediately a series of 'caches' — blood-red bowls containing human fingers and teeth, all wrapped in some kind of organic substance that left an impression in the plaster. We then dug through layer after layer of flat stones, alternating with mud, which probably is what kept the tomb so intact and airtight."
Eventually the scientists unearthed the final layer to reveal a small hole.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There’s a REASON they call it “El Zotz”.
Lady fingers?............
All cultures are equal ...
ping
Neil Young:
“they offered life in sacrifice, so that others could go on”
[from “Cortez the Killer” ]
IBEZ: In Before El Zotz
Yes, another reason to CELEBRATE DIVERSITY! /s.
Here the romanticized view of all this:
He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
And the palace in the sun.
On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wandered
With the secrets of the worlds.
And his subjects gathered ‘round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.
And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.
Hate was just a legend,
War was never known.
People worked together
And they lifted many stones.
Then they carried them to the flatlands
But they died along the way
Then they built up with their bare hands
What we still can’t do today.
And I know she’s living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can’t remember where
Or how I lost my way.
He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer.
[Neil Young, “Cortez the Killer”]
A super find. Very rare intact tomb.
Mayan zots must have been especially gruesome affairs.
Neil Young has been a major squish head for four decades. Notice he isn’t down there living in Chiapas with all the wonderful sacrificers.
Never heard that song. Wow. Human sacrifice is ok? Yikes....
They lowered a bare lightbulb into the hole, and suddenly Houston saw “an explosion of color in all directions — reds, greens, yellows.” It was a royal tomb filled with organics that Houston says he’d never seen before: pieces of wood, textiles, and thin layers of painted stucco.
“When we opened the tomb, I poked my head in and there was still, to my astonishment, a smell of putrification and a chill that went to my bones,” Houston said. “The chamber had been so well sealed, for over 1600 years, that no air and little water had entered.”
*******************
This is a marvelous find, and an absolutely horrible biohazard.
Our civilization will yield thousands of metal drums filled with decomposing fetuses and infants, and graves with plastic penile implants and silicone bubbies.
Future archaeologists will wonder: “Just before they all killed each other, why did the Mur I’kanz sacrifice their progeny at they same time they worshipped procreation?
There is something curious about this discovery. I just can’t put my finger on it. Maybe if I had more info I could sink my teeth into, I could figure it out........
neil would make an excellent blood sacrifice.
LLS
Yes, their sacrificial practies were gruesome to say the least. The women pierced their tongues with spiny branches; the men pierced something else using manta ray stingers. Also, they tore out their enemies’ fingernails before sacrificing them and ripping out their hearts. Here is a picture of the female form of the sacrifice. I will spare you the other.
http://womanruler.com/xoc.html
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