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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGiant Maya Carvings Found in Guatemala
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/pictures/130807-maya-frieze-discovered-holmul-guatemala-archaeology/Picture of archaeologist Anya Shetler cleaning ancient stucco frieze recently unearthed in the buried Maya city of Holmul in the Peten region of Guatemala
Big Discovery
Photograph courtesy Francisco Estrada-Belli
Archaeologist Anya Shetler cleans an inscription below an ancient stucco frieze recently unearthed in the buried Maya city of Holmul in the Peten region of Guatemala. Sunlight from a tunnel entrance highlights the carved legs of a ruler sitting atop the head of a Maya mountain spirit. The enormous friezewhich measures 26 feet by nearly 7 feet (8 meters by 2 meters)depicts human figures in a mythological setting, suggesting these may be deified rulers. It was discovered in July in the buried foundations of a rectangular pyramid in Holmul.
Maya archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli and his team were excavating a tunnel left open by looters when they happened upon the frieze. "The looters had come close to it, but they hadn't seen it," Estrada-Belli said. According to Estrada-Belli, the frieze is one of the best preserved examples of its kind. "It's 95 percent preserved. There's only one corner that's not well preserved because it's too close to the surface, but the rest of it isn't missing any parts," said Estrada-Belli, who is affiliated with Tulane University, Boston University, and the American Museum of Natural History and who is also a National Geographic Explorer. His excavations at Holmul were supported by the National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants Program.
Maya archaeologist Marcello Canuto agreed, calling the frieze "amazingly and beautifully preserved." "We often dream of finding things this well preserved, and Francisco did it," said Canuto, who is the director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans; he was not involved in the project. For example, despite being mostly faded away now, traces of red, blue, green, and yellow paint are still visible on the frieze.
"It gives you an idea of how intricate and ornate these sites that we are excavating must have been during their apogee," Canuto said. "These sites must have been a feast for the eyes when they were inhabited." David Stuart, a Maya hieroglyph expert at the University of Texas at Austin, pointed out that archaeologists think most large Maya temples were probably decorated with similar sorts of designs. "But not all temples were so carefully buried and preserved like this," said Stuart, who did not participate in the project. "Also, each temple facade was slightly different and therefore unique in terms of its detail and message." (Explore an interactive map of key Maya sites.)
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Giant Maya Carvings Found in Guatemala (Original Post)
SoCalDem
Aug 2013
OP
Common Sense Party
(14,139 posts)1. That is awesome.
What luck that it's in such good shape.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)2. amazing
onehandle
(51,122 posts)3. The Taliban are on their way to blow then up. nt
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)5. South America not Afghanistan
The corporatists will grind it up for road building gravel.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)9. ...and South America is not Central America, either
for the record...
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)4. Is it the light or are there traces of pigment?
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)6. Yes.. parts were so well protected that colors remain
CTyankee
(63,911 posts)7. It's thrilling to have such a large find so well preserved. And the intricacy of the carving is just
amazing. I hope it doesn't get degraded by tourism but I worry it will...
Berlum
(7,044 posts)8. Thus precisely fulfilling the famous 2012 prophecies
Berlum
(7,044 posts)10. This explains everything