Rare Maya panels found in Guatemala

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 3/11/09 | Sarah Grainger

[NormsRevenge]

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Archeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle that are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth.

The newly discovered panels, both 26 feet long and stacked on top of each other, were created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh.

It took investigators three months to uncover the carvings while excavating El Mirador, the biggest ancient Mayan city in the world, the site's head researcher, Richard Hansen, said on Wednesday.

The Maya built soaring temples and elaborate palaces in Central America and southern Mexico, dominating the region for some 2,000 years, before mysteriously abandoning their cities around 900 AD.

The El Mirador basin was deserted much earlier with the large urban population leaving a complex network of roads and waterways and a massive pyramid now covered under thick vegetation.

The earliest written version of the Popol Vuh was discovered in the early 1700s by a Spanish colonial priest and the panels are the first known sculptural depictions of the main characters in the myth -- two hero twins, Hansen said.

"This is pre-Christian, it has tremendous antiquity and shows again the remarkable resilience of an ideology that's existed for thousands of years," Hansen, an Idaho State University archeologist who has worked at El Mirador for over a decade, said.

On one panel, the twins are depicted surrounded by cosmic monsters and above them is a bird deity with outstretched wings. On the other, there is a Mayan corn god framed by an undulating serpent, said Hansen who worked as a consultant for Mel Gibson's 2006 movie about the Maya, "Apocalypto."

[txnativegop]

Thanks. This is interesting!

[Michigan Bowhunter]

Just got back from Cancun and went to see the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza

Fun stuff. Problem was looking out the windows of the bus on the main road out to the pyramids....every other road had a jeep with a .50 cal mounted on it to watch for narco traffic and guerilla types.......not a very stable part of the world right now.

[txnativegop]

Mexico is a poophole now, and it always has been.

[NormsRevenge]

I’d live to go hacking thru the jungle and uncover some Mayan ruins. They knew how to build and party.

[NormsRevenge]

Mayan timeline and stuff

http://www.jaguar-sun.com/timeline.html

[billygoatgruff]

Did it have any Mikey D’s advertisments on it, or maybe Coca-Cola?

[An.American.Expatriate]

Pic’s??

[NormsRevenge]

Looked for pics, nothing yet.

I’ll check later and ping ya to them or hopefully someone else will post if they see any.

[mtnwmn]

We visited Guatemala this summer and went to Antigua. It was a lovely country with an optimistic population....no guns noted....lots of razor wire though. However, the Mayan calendar ends Dec. 22, 2012.

[txnativegop]

If there were, it’ll rewrite history. LOL!!!!

[An.American.Expatriate]

thanks norm

[sr4402]

From another article.

[Red_Devil 232]

PING

The Mayan city of El Mirador was a booming metropolis 900 years before Jesus walked the earth. It is estimated that 100,000 Maya lived in and around the great city. Mysteriously the city was abandoned, repopulated, and then abandoned again. For the past 1000 years the rain forest reclaimed the ruins of El Mirador, which now lies buried beneath ten feet of soil and debris. The painting above was published in a National Geographic article about El Mirador in the 1980s.

The Mayan city of El Mirador was a booming metropolis 900 years before Jesus walked the earth. It is estimated that 100,000 Maya lived in and around the great city. Mysteriously the city was abandoned, repopulated, and then abandoned again. For the past 1000 years the rain forest reclaimed the ruins of El Mirador, which now lies buried beneath ten feet of soil and debris. The painting above was published in a National Geographic article about El Mirador in the 1980s.

[SunkenCiv]

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