Remains of Mayan City Nearly 3,000 Years Old Unearthed in Guatemala
Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Mayan city nearly 3,000 years old in northern Guatemala, with pyramids and monuments that point to its significance as an important ceremonial site, the Central American country's culture ministry said Thursday.
The Mayan civilization arose around 2000 BC, reaching its height between 400 and 900 AD in what is present-day southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.
The city named "Los Abuelos," Spanish for "The Grandparents," once stood some 21 kilometers (13 miles) from the important archaeological site of Uaxactun, in Guatemala's northern Peten department, the ministry said in a statement.
It is dated to what is known as the "Middle Preclassic" period from about 800 to 500 BC, and is believed to have been "one of the most ancient and important ceremonial centers" of the Mayan civilization in the jungle area of Peten near the Mexican border, it added.
"The site presents remarkable architectural planning" with pyramids and monuments "sculpted with unique iconography from the region," said the ministry.
The city takes its name from two human-like sculptures of an "ancestral couple" found at the site.
The figures, dated to between 500 and 300 BC, "could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship," said the ministry.
'Unique canal system'
The city, which covers an area of about 16 square kilometers (six square miles) was discovered by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists in previously little-explored areas of the Uaxactun park.
Nearby, they also found a pyramid standing 33 meters (108 feet) high with murals from the Preclassic period and "a unique canal system," according to the statement.
"The set of these three sites forms a previously unknown urban triangle... These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organization of pre-Hispanic Peten," said the ministry.
In April, scientists discovered a 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan culture at Tikal, elsewhere in the Peten department.
That find was interpreted as proof of ties between the two pre-Hispanic cultures, which lived about 1,300 km apart.
Tikal, about 23 km from Uaxcatun, is the main archaeological site in Guatemala and one of its biggest tourist attractions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Archaeologists Unearth Foundation of 1760s Schoolhouse for Black Children
Archaeologists in Virginia have unearthed the foundation of a building from the 1700s that once supported the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, William & Mary announced Wednesday. The university in Williamsburg said the foundation is nearly completely intact. Archaeologists also uncovered a cellar that is layered with centuries of artifacts, including slate pencil fragments and jewelry. The schoolhouse was later used as a dormitory housing some of the first generations of women to attend college in the US. 'The roots of our city and university entwine here,' said Katherine A. Rowe, William & Mary's president. 'Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed up through the early 20th century.' The Williamsburg Bray School taught hundreds of mostly enslaved students in the 1760s. The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework. And yet becoming literate also gave them more agency, with students sharing what they learned with family members. The schoolhouse then became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary's growing campus. The building was expanded for various purposes, including student housing, and later moved from its original location. Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. It was then moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum that includes parts of the original city. The museum has restored the schoolhouse and is working to identify the students' descendants. Meanwhile, archaeologists with Colonial Williamsburg recently uncovered the foundation and cellar during a major project by William & Mary to renovate a university building, Gates Hall. The school's archaeologists are also involved. Tom Higgins of William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research said the cellar is not lined with bricks and was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid. Researchers have found handmade ceramics often associated with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities, the university said. There are also items that appear to be more recent, such as a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war, and the arts. From 1924 to 1930, the building housed Methodist women attending William & Mary. 'We know that the girls at Brown Hall were furnishing their dorms,' said Michele Brumfield, senior researcher at the university's archaeological center. 'So maybe they were bringing in things like this.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
'Spectacular' Viking Burial Site Discovered in Denmark
In an accidental find, a 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a "spectacular" trove of ancient objects, a museum announced Tuesday. The discovery came when pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing a gold thread were unearthed during construction work near Lisbjerg, a village located seven kilometers (four miles) north of Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city. Archaeologists found the site contained around 30 graves dating from the second half of the 10th century, when the famous King Harald Bluetooth reigned, said the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus. According to the museum's archaeologist Mads Ravn, the graves are most likely linked to a noble family from the Viking Age -- which lasted between the eighth and 11th centuries -- whose farm was discovered less than a kilometer from the burial site in the late 1980s. "This could have been one of Harald Bluetooth's earls or stewards," Ravn told AFP. Ravn noted that the king, who introduced Christianity to what is today Denmark, tasked nobles with managing certain regions. Researchers also discovered some human remains, such as teeth and bones, at the site. "People basically took what was important to them into the grave because they wanted to transfer it to the other world," the archaeologist said. One of the graves, which scientists believe belonged to an important woman, contained a box filled with decorative objects and a pair of scissors. The "magnificent" box is a remarkable find, according to Ravn, with only a few having been discovered before, including one in southeastern Germany. "It's very rare, there's only three of them we know of," he said. The excavations at Lisbjerg are due to be completed this week, after which experts will begin a thorough analysis of the objects recovered. Wooden objects in particular should help them accurately date the burial site. As a royal and commercial center, Aarhus was one of Denmark's most important cities during the Viking Age.
Arab News
12-06-2025
- Arab News
King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years
CAIRO: After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun's iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids. Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3. 'Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,' said museum director Ali Abdel Halim. 'All are set to be moved soon,' he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer. The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated. Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals. Tutankhamun's treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo's Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels. But the neoclassical building — with faded cases, no climate control and aging infrastructure — now contrasts with the high-tech GEM. Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilization, housing more than 100,000 artefacts — with over half on public display. In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut's treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh's intact tomb in 1922. His mummy will remain in its original resting place in Luxor's Valley of the Kings as it is 'a vital part of the archaeological site,' Egyptian officials have said. A virtual replica, however, will be displayed at the GEM using virtual reality technology. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, long the historic heart of Egyptology, has lost in 2021 other star exhibits: 22 royal mummies including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut that were relocated in a widely watched state procession to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo. Still, it is home to around 170,000 artefacts, according to the museum director, including treasures from Yuya and Thuya — Tutankhamun's ancestors — and items from ancient Tanis, such as the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope. A total of 32,000 artefacts have already been relocated from storage and display halls at the Tahrir museum to the GEM. The museum's director said the space left behind by Tutankhamun's collection will eventually be filled by a new exhibition 'on par with the significance of Tut's treasures.'
