Discovery of Tomb May Overturn Mayas’ Image : Archeology: Researchers in Guatemala say findings may show war ruined once-peaceful civilization.

In a remote section of northeastern Guatemala, Vanderbilt University archeologists are working against time to excavate the newly discovered tomb of the Mayan emperor who they believe catapulted the once-peaceful civilization into a ruinous war.

The discovery may be the final piece of evidence that overturns the long-held belief that the Mayas were a peace-loving people who lived in harmony with the tropical forest. The tomb and other artifacts discovered this winter at the Mayan city of Dos Pilas, the researchers say, provide the strongest evidence that the sophisticated empire disintegrated in fratricidal warfare.

In a telephone interview from Guatemala, Vanderbilt archeologist Arthur M. Demarest estimated that he has perhaps a week to finish removing artifacts from the tomb before heavy spring rains collapse its entrance or--even worse--guerrillas and looters possibly come and seize the scientists’ hard-won bounty.

At Dos Pilas and in the surrounding region, he said, researchers have discovered a series of fortified villages, drawbridges, walled agricultural areas and extensive evidence of arms--all of which reinforce his theory of widespread warfare.

Among the artifacts recovered from the tomb, in addition to the emperor’s skeleton, are five pots bearing painted hieroglyphics that Demarest hopes will outline the political structure of the Mayan empire just before its collapse.

Archeologists have long pondered the mystery of why the seemingly peaceful Mayan civilization disappeared rather abruptly in the 9th Century. A growing number are beginning to accept the warfare theory first proposed by Demarest and others in the late 1980s.

The picture Demarest now paints of the late-Mayan civilization is one of fierce fighting that changed the architecture of the Mayas, led to massive relocations of rural populations to heavily fortified cities, and necessitated changes in agricultural techniques that led to destruction of the delicate forest ecology and its abandonment.

“It’s a completely post-apocalyptic landscape right out of ‘The Road Warrior,’ ” the cult film about post-nuclear Australia, Demarest said.

The quest for the new tomb as told by Demarest sounds more like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

It is a tale of a mysterious grave marker, a band of burrowing carpenters led by a fellow named “Rat Man,” and threats from torrential rains and guerrilla warriors. Demarest has fought to overcome not only the elements but the ridicule of his colleagues and inadequate funding.

Demarest is the head of a team of 43 scientists and more than 100 workers who are excavating six sites in the Petexbatun jungle of Guatemala. In 10 projects, archeologists, nutritionists, physiologists, chemists and other specialists are putting together a comprehensive picture of the Mayan society before it disappeared from the region around AD 820.

One of Demarest’s priorities was the search for the burial chamber of the emperor known as “Ruler 2,” because the hieroglyphics that bear his name have not been deciphered. Ruler 2 was one of the kings who launched an ambitious program of conquest and expansion in the early 8th Century.

He conquered the largest territorial state in Mayan history, an empire that encompassed more than 1,500 square miles along the Pasion River. In the process, Demarest said, Ruler 2 “altered classic Maya notions of warfare,” changing it from a ritualistic capturing and slaughter of a few kings and noblemen to brutal, large-scale encounters between armies of peasants and farmers.

Demarest believed that Ruler 2’s burial chamber was in a massive mound astride the Grand Plaza at Dos Pilas. The mound was a grand, stone-faced temple, but later residents of the Mayan city stripped the facing away and used it to fortify the city’s walls. A stele or ceremonial column in front of the mound identifies it as the burial site of Ruler 2--a mystery because most tombs are not so identified.

Once the stone facing was removed, rainwater was able to percolate through the mound, removing most of the soil and clay matrix that held it together and leaving a mass of dangerously loose large stones.

During the 1990 excavation season, Demarest made two attempts to find the burial chamber within the mound. Both times the excavations collapsed despite shoring and careful excavation.

He hired highly skilled carpenters and “tunnelistas” to excavate a shaft from the top center of the mound and shore it up with wood. The team dug down more than 20 feet last year, finding nothing, leading many archeologists to conclude that the burial chamber did not exist, despite the marker. “I’ve taken a lot of ridicule from my colleagues at the site because we hadn’t hit anything in any of the excavations,” Demarest said. “Most people thought it (the stele) was some great ancient Maya practical joke.”

Nonetheless, he resumed excavating the shaft this year, hitting bedrock 30 feet down. In desperation, he began tunneling sideways and struck the wall of the chamber at the beginning of April.

Removing one stone from the wall of the tomb, Demarest fashioned a crude periscope out of shaving mirrors and peered in, taking photographs and making drawings. “It was scary because of the danger of collapse. I thought there was no way to get in.”

By this time, the group had used up virtually all funds. Demarest flew to Antigua and requested emergency funds from the National Geographic Society, one of his longtime sponsors. The society came through, as did Tetrapak, a Swedish consortium, allowing him to complete the excavation.

Because of the danger of collapse, they were able to open only “a very thin window” in the wall of the chamber. Then they called in Raoul, a tunnelista known as “Rat Man” because of his ability to squeeze through narrow openings.

Rat Man squeaked in and began shoring up the walls and ceiling so they could enlarge the opening. Demarest said: “We got a generator and a light, I took my Walkman, put in a Dire Straits cassette, and began digging away” on 15-hour shifts. He emerged Monday only long enough to report his findings.

He is more concerned about the threat of rain than anything else, fearing that storms will collapse the tomb. “But I’m also concerned about the publicity. We’re in a battle zone, beyond the law. Guerrillas and the army regularly go back and forth through the camp. We’re at the mercy of everybody.”

In addition to the five pots, Demarest has also found “vases, a large dish, a very large square tray, and other more conventional vessels, all with beautiful polychrome painting.” He has also found Ruler 2’s skeleton, “which is in excellent condition,” as well as ornate headdresses and jade jewelry.

Although the tomb is “sexy icing on the cake,” Demarest said, other discoveries made this winter “are theoretically more important” because they show the ferocity of the warfare that engulfed the region.

Most important is an extensive network of walls that weaves through the area. Critics of Demarest’s theories about Mayan warfare have argued that walls he unearthed earlier may have been decorative or symbolic.

The new excavations, Demarest said, provide “overwhelming” evidence that the walls were defensive, including the presence of large numbers of lance heads at the base of the walls around Dos Pilas. They found even more lance heads at one point, about 60 feet wide, where the wall was apparently breached, leading to the downfall of the city.

The presence of walls around small villages and even fields is particularly telling, he said. At that point, he said, the costs of warfare are much greater than any benefits. “You simply can’t keep that up for very long.”

The intensive agriculture that would have to have been conducted inside the walls would have quickly depleted the thin jungle soil, he said, and “would have destroyed the natural ecological regime of the rain forest, which requires dispersed populations and dispersed agriculture.”

With the soil depleted and much of the population dead from warfare, the remainder must have moved away or died out, he said. “After about 810 or 820, there are no markers and no construction. It was abandoned at all sites,” a sad ending to a classic tale of greed and conquest.

MAYAN TOMB FIND

American and Guatemalan archaeologists are hastily excavating the tomb of the Mayan emperor, now know only as Ruler 2, who is believed to have catapulted the empire into a fratricidal war that eventually led to its destruction.

* When the tomb of Ruler 2 was built, it was faced with stone blocks (inset), but Dos Pilas residents later removed the stones and used them to fortify the walls of the city, leaving behind a pile of dirt and rubble.

* Scientist first tried to tunnel in at (A) and (B), but both shafts collapsed.

* Finally, to reach the burial chamber, they sank a heavily braced shaft (C) 30 feet down through the rubble.

* The shaft missed the chamber and workers had to tunnel horizontally (D) through the collapsing rubble to find it.