Ancient Tomb in Jungle May Yield Clues to Mayas

A Maya tomb, hidden in the jungles for 1,000 years and believed to be for royalty, may give scientists some clue to the mystery of how the great Indian civilization flourished and declined.

For scientists laboring to unravel the ancient secrets, such a tomb untouched by looters is valuable for both its artifacts and what they can tell about the daily life of a society that was at its height when the Roman Empire was in decline.

“Here, we have a real chance to personalize what came out of the ground. It can be a real slice of time, a real insight into that which was,” said Richard Leventhal, the anthropologist who headed the team that unearthed the tomb March 15 in southern Belize.

Leventhal, director of the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies at the State University of New York at Albany, said this site, discovered by an oil company in 1974, once was a Maya city of 5,000 to 7,000 people.

26 Monuments

He said it is thought that at least 26 monuments once ringed the city’s plaza. A few have survived with carvings of ancient human figures and hieroglyphics that scientists only now are beginning to understand.

Jungle vegetation covers mounds that likely were sites of cut-stone buildings once covered with plaster and painted.

Leventhal said the name that scientists now use for the site, Nim Li Punit, comes from one of those monuments. It features a figure of a man wearing a large plumed headdress. In the Kekchi dialect of Mayan, Nim Li Punit means “big hat.”

Whatever this place was called by the ancient Maya is unknown, but Leventhal says someday researchers may be able to figure that out from the artifacts and writings that have survived the centuries.

Better Understanding

In recent years, scientists have been able to better understand the hieroglyphics and are able to better understand what, and who, were the Maya.

For instance, it is now clear that temples and monuments were built to living kings, not gods as once thought.

Leventhal said that on the basis of artifacts found in the tomb, it dates from AD 700 to AD 800. Most scholars place the Maya Classic Period between AD 250 and AD 900, a time when its culture was at its height.

Leventhal said he believes at least four people were buried in the 9-by-3 1/2-foot tomb, reachable only by a steep footpath.

Tomb Collapsed

At some point while the city thrived, the tomb collapsed for reasons still undetermined. He said when the collapse occurred, the Maya closed it forever, leading to speculation that another such tomb could exist.

Leventhal, 34, who earned his doctorate at Harvard University, said he believes it is a royal tomb and most likely the burial site of kings because it is in front of the second largest building in the city--the private shrine of the king in a plaza reserved for royalty and elite.

Added to this is the size of the tomb itself and the large number of high-quality artifacts found inside it--all indicating a royal burial.

Inside the tomb, Leventhal and six graduate students working with him found four layers of pottery that had been smashed by the tomb’s collapse and a four-inch pile of human bones.

Jaguar Teeth, Jade Carvings

After six weeks of working eight hours a day, the team recovered 39 pots and bowls, green jade carvings, human teeth with jade inlays believed to signify royalty, jaguar teeth, two large serpentine ax heads, two knives from stone and pieces of stingray spine used in bloodletting rituals important for legitimizing power among the Maya elite.

The pottery held offerings to the Maya gods and in some cases were symbols of power, Leventhal said. Others contained food for the deceased in the afterlife and were symbols of the power of the royalty.