Headless Man's Tomb Found Under Maya Torture Mural

National Geographic News ^ | March 12, 2010 | John Roach

[SunkenCiv]

The tomb of a headless man adorned with jade has been discovered beneath an ancient Mexican chamber famously painted with scenes of torture. Found under the Temple of Murals at the Maya site of Bonampak, the man was either a captive warrior who was sacrificed -- perhaps one of the victims in the mural -- or a relative of the city's ruler, scientists speculate... At the time of the murals' creation, about A.D. 790, Bonampak was a city of thousands. Today its most prominent vestige is a long-overgrown, partially excavated acropolis in the middle of a vast tropical rain forest in the southern state of Chiapas... Perched midway up the stepped acropolis, the Temple of Murals holds three elaborately painted rooms. Room One depicts the presentation of a young heir. Room Two, above the newfound tomb, is ringed with scenes of the torture of captive warriors -- broken fingers, torn-out fingernails, heads without bodies. Room Three includes paintings of an elite bloodletting ritual... Discovered by the outside world in 1946, the Bonampak murals eviscerated scholars' long-held belief in an ancient Maya Empire ruled by kindly astronomer-priests. The new tomb find may only add to the aura of violence. [Photograph courtesy Alejandro Tovalín, INAH]

[Fred Nerks]

Bonampak Mural

[JoeProBono]

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

So that’s where I lost it!

I’m a Tikal man, myself but I’ve seen pictures of the Bonampok murals and they are fabulous.

[cydcharisse]

Giles Corey who was pressed to death on September 19, 1692, Salem during the witch trials. He refused to enter a plea.

[James C. Bennett]

I specified the West, which includes Europe.

Joan of Arc, for example:

Not to mention murdering "witches" is primitive barbarism, no matter what angle one examines it. Again, thank the Age of Enlightenment.

:^)

[CholeraJoe]

No one was ever burned for witchcraft in Salem.

Or in other English-speaking countries. In Britain accused witches who didn't confess were also hanged. Most of the so-called witch burnings took place in Germany, or in fact the accused's crime was heresy, as with Joan of Arc and Jacques DeMolay.

[shredderman]

Welcome! Welcome my friends to Fantasy Island!

[eleni121]

The Age of Enlightenment? Yes that glorious age of the guillotine...Marx, Hegel, totalitarianism...read Adorno

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The body resulted from an Amish drive by.

[James C. Bennett]

Please.

As opposed to slaughtering for witchcraft, the years before.

[colorado tanker]

English law provided for burning for women convicted of high treason or heresy, but not witchcraft. Queen Mary (”Bloody Mary”) burned quite a few men and women for heresy. IIRC, during the reign of James II two women were sentenced to burning for treason after Monmouth's Rebellion, but I believe one was commuted.

[eleni121]

You are comparing apples and oranges -

in fact as far as france, the sentences by church courts were far more lenient than civil courts.

A few thousand wrongfully convicted vs tens of millions (enlightenment)

no contest: the enlightenment has proved to be a perversion of humanity.

[James C. Bennett]

Maybe we should all revert back to the sub-culture of the Middle and Dark Ages. Pre-Reformation. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

It’ll be raining marshmallows and candy rainbows.

[SunkenCiv]

Prior to this find, the mural was believed to portray a PreColumbian barbershop. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

“Chief Cause of Poverty Low Wages”

[SunkenCiv]

I'm sure all those hearts cut out were just a cultural misunderstanding.