Ancient Mayan culture was surprisingly diverse and political system complex

Archaeologists working in Honduras have discovered an entombed human skeleton of an elite member of the ancient Maya Empire, which might help unravel some longstanding mysteries of the vanished culture.

Washington, May 21 : Archaeologists working in Honduras have discovered an entombed human skeleton of an elite member of the ancient Maya Empire, which might help unravel some longstanding mysteries of the vanished culture.

According to Dr. Allan Maca, an archaeologist at Colgate University, the remains, seated in an upright position in an unusual tomb, and flanked by shells, pottery, vessels and jade adornments suggest a surprisingly diverse culture and complex political system existed in the influential Maya city of Copan around AD 650.

"The tomb is characterized by a split vault created by interlocking lintels [load-bearing horizontal supports]. The chamber was accessed from above by a stuccoed stone chute that descends from the surface of the temple. The feature allowed the tomb to be "re-entered years after the original interment, for purposes of ancestor veneration," said Dr. Maca, who is also the director of the Project for the Planning of Ancient Copan.

Located at the western edge of modern-day Honduras near the border with Guatemala, Copan was one of the most important Maya sites, flourishing between the fifth and ninth centuries AD.

But until now, much about the political makeup and cultural range of the city has been poorly understood.

Dr. Maca said the position of the body, the structure of the tomb, and several unexpected artefacts suggested the interred individual was a political or priestly figure, adding that the remains belonged to a 50-year-old man with various illnesses, who had poor use of his left arm, poor arterial flow through his upper spinal cord, and a chronic infection of the skull known as mastoiditis.

The entombed individual was found with "a jade pectoral hung from a necklace of dozens of jade beads of various sizes", and as jade was a precious commodity, the jewels represented "a level of control over economic resources", he said.

"The incised design on the pectoral likely represents a political title or social affiliation that links this individual to other major sites around the city," he added.

He said the tomb's location, some 1,300 feet (400 meters) west of the Acropolis, Copan's ceremonial core, was unexpected. The grandiose tombs belonging to members of the Copan dynasty, royal court, and royal family are typically found in Copan's Acropolis.

"The design is without precedent in the Maya area and is the first elaborate tomb construction to be discovered outside the ceremonial centre of Copan," said Dr. Maca.

There are several oddities to the tomb as well, according to Dr. Maca.

The position of the buried individual, seated with legs crossed, was not common in Copan or in the Maya lowlands during the Classic period, which lasted from about A.D. 300 to 900, and several vessels found in the tomb, made in sets specifically for the burial, bear "a type of false or alternative hieroglyphics unlike those used by the ancient Maya", Dr. Maca said.

"Some of the pottery vessels likely came from the south near present-day El Salvador. Thus it is unlikely that these were made in Copan and probable that they signify some sort of cultural affiliation with that region. Also found in the tomb were seashells laid in a pattern that appears to represent a kind of cosmological map and may be representative of the waters in Maya creation mythology," National Geographic quoted him as saying.

Dario Euraque, director of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, said the findings were significant for a number of reasons.

"Mainly, this is the first tomb to be found outside the principal monuments where all funeral sites are located. We never thought we would find any in the Bosque, which is along the periphery of Copan," he said.

"The discovery provides "an unusual archaeological context that helps expand our knowledge of the sociopolitical and cultural complexity of the ancient city and of the funerary and ritual landscape of the Copan Valley during the seventh century AD," Dr. Maca said.

Euraque however, argued that the artefacts and tomb characteristics were not representative of the Mayan culture.

"This goes against theories that all populations in the Copan Valley were uniquely Mayan. There appears to have been a cultural mix," Euraque said.

ANI