In Focus
Find of huge Mayan head suggests significant city
Guatemala
City - “Archaeologists have discovered a huge Mayan sculptured head in
Guatemala that suggests a little-known site in the jungle-covered Peten
region may once have been a significant city.
The stucco sculpture, which is 10 feet wide and 11.5 feet tall, was
buried for centuries at the Chilonche ruins, close to the border with
Belize.
The recent discovery of the head, which dates from the early Classic
period between 300 to 600 AD, means the site is much older than
previously thought. The Maya often constructed new buildings using older
ones as foundations.
“It
could be an imaginary being, something from the underworld, perhaps
linked to a Mayan deity,” Polytechnic University of Valencia professor
Gaspar Munoz, part of the team of archaeologists that found the head,
told Reuters.
Unlike Guatemala’s famous Mayan cities of Tikal and El Mirador,
little excavation has been carried out at Chilonche.
Looters, looking for artifacts to sell on the black market, had dug a
small tunnel passing the buried sculpture, which is similar to others
decorating a solar observatory at another site, Uaxactun.
Guatemala’s Peten region is home to dozens of Mayan ruins, but the
largely jungle-covered area is plagued by looters, poachers and
smugglers taking cocaine to Mexico.
Courtesy: Reuters
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