Micro-camera Provides First Peek Inside Mayan Tomb

LiveScience ^ | Friday, June 24, 2011 | Stephanie Pappas

[SunkenCiv]

A Mayan tomb closed to the world for 1,500 years has finally revealed some of its secrets as scientists snaked a tiny camera into a red-and-black painted burial chamber.

The room, decorated with paintings of nine figures, also contains pottery, jade pieces and shell, archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) reported Thursday (June 23).

The tomb is located in Palenque, an expansive set of stone ruins in the Mexican state of Chiapas. According to the INAH, the tomb was discovered in 1999 under a building called Temple XX. But the stonework and location prevented exploration.

By threading a tiny video camera through a 6-inch by 6-inch (15 cm by 15 cm) hole above the tomb, researchers were able to glimpse for the first time the contents of the burial chamber. The room contains a sarcophagus and pottery dishes, which may have once held funerary offerings. The contents of the chamber suggest that the tomb is the resting place of a dignitary who ruled in Palenque sometime between A.D. 431 and A.D. 550.

Exploration of another Palenque tomb from the same time period suggests that the area was a royal necropolis, INAH archaeologists said. Later, Temple XX was built over the site, covering the vaulted chamber tomb with a step pyramid structure.

[SunkenCiv]

A stepped ceiling and the thick slab gateway of the burial chamber. CREDIT: National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)

[SunkenCiv]

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Photos credit: National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)

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Temple XX in the ancient Mayan city of Palenque. Under the temple is a 1,500-year-old burial chamber, unreachable except by micro-camera.	To get to the hidden tomb, researchers had to descend from the top of the temple.	A ladder leads into Temple XX, from which archaeologists threaded a video camera into the burial chamber.
A 6-inch (15 cm) by 6-inch hole leads to the unexplored burial chamber.	The first images of the inside of the 1,500-year-old burial chamber reveal red-and-black painted walls.	A mural decorating the walls of the 1,500-year-old burial chamber consists of nine characters outlined in black on red.
Murals on the tomb walls.	A stepped ceiling and the thick slab gateway of the burial chamber.	Pottery, jade and shell sit on the burial chamber floor. Archaeologists believe the burial chamber holds the fragmented bones of a ruler from around 431 to 550 AD.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Rebelbase]

Cool! I guess the difference in quality of the murals vs. what is visible in Egyptian tombs is the difference between a humid and arid climate?

[bigheadfred]

unreachable

...and there was much wailing...and gnashing of teeth...

[Rio]

the tomb was discovered in 1999 under a building called Temple XX.

I know that temple!

[Carpe Cerevisi]

[Squantos]

Did they find a calendar that “starts” in 2012 ?

Aka page two.....:o)

[plain talk]

Man - it looks like a set from Saw.

[arderkrag]

Ping for later.

[wildbill]

I agree. The Mayas were a pretty bloodthirsty lot and so were their gods so the copius use here is not very surprising IMO.

In most cultures the color red used in relation to funerary rites and items is related to blood and/or their vision of life and death.

[SunkenCiv]

The Mayans and Aztecs would laugh their way through “Saw”, and think everyone involved in the script and cast were wussies.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

I always secretly figured that was Steve Jobs’ inspiration for the product name.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s part of it. Also, the Egyptian sites sometimes appear to be bare stone, but their ancient appearance was characterized by bright colors, since flaked off. The water table has had an impact on subterranean sites (most tombs in Egypt are below ground), and in the case of the pyramids, moisture wicks up. And the Aswan High Dam has caused the water table to rise, and salts to leach up from below, damaging (and eventually will destroy) even carved surfaces.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Thanks for the post. Bump for reference.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[aruanan]

Cool! I guess the difference in quality of the murals vs. what is visible in Egyptian tombs is the difference between a humid and arid climate?

Though I was told the murals in Mitla, near Oaxaca, Mexico, were the original paint. It was pretty dry there.

In the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, I was looking at objects in a display case in the Egyptian wing. The wood and leather looked really clean and fresh. I asked a curator who made their models. He said those were the original artifacts and that the climate was such that they were preserved in that pristine a state. He pointed out some mud building blocks that still had a legible cartouche stamped in the mud.

[Tainan]

They certainly left the place looking a mess...!

[Captain Beyond]

Hopefully they will find more of the murals intact to see whatever kind of story about this Mayan king can be deciphered and hopeuflly it want be a PC college grad doing it.