A man with the title "junior obsidian" kneels before the king in a Maya mural researchers uncovered in Guatemala in 2010. Credit: Illustration by Heather Hurst, copyright 2014
Posted on 03/25/2015 2:24:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The murals also provide information about a man buried beneath them. During an excavation, the archaeologists found the skeleton of a man dressed like the sages in the mural. It's possible the man once lived in the room, which later became his final resting place, Saturno said.
Archaeologists discovered the approximately 1,250-year-old mural in the ancient city of Xultun, located in the northeastern part of present-day Guatemala. During an archaeological study of Xultun, an undergraduate student inspecting an old looters' trail noticed traces of paint on an ancient wall covered by dirt... the elements had been kind to the building and its treasures. The excavation uncovered a rectangular room covered with murals and a Maya calendar, the oldest known Maya dating system on record.
Saturno and his colleagues excavated past the point where the looters tunneled, and came face-to-face with "the polychrome face of a king seated with his blue-feathered headdress," Saturno said. A man kneeling before the king, labeled itz'in taaj, or "junior obsidian," faces the king in profile.
Behind the junior obsidian, on the west wall, are three men dressed in black and sitting cross-legged. One of the men is labeled ch'ok, or "youth," and another is called sakun taaj, or "senior obsidian."
It's unclear what "obsidian" means, the researchers said.
"Are they religious? Are they scholars? Is there a line between those things?" Saturno said. "They seem to be making books and painting tables on the walls."
..."This room celebrates a special group of members of the royal court of Xultun that are called obsidian, [or] taaj," Freidel said. "The obsidian people appear to be present at other sites, but we don't know much about them."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
A man with the title "junior obsidian" kneels before the king in a Maya mural researchers uncovered in Guatemala in 2010. Credit: Illustration by Heather Hurst, copyright 2014
Kewl!
Obsidian Taaj, is that not the name of a rap group?
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What is a “photo bomb?”
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Probably Valerie Jarrett’s ancestor.............
Photobombing is the act of accidentally or purposely putting oneself into the view of a photograph, often in order to play a practical joke on the photographer or the subjects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobombing
Since their knives were made of obsidian, I believe the man in the pic is probably a bodyguard to the king. Notice how he is looking away very serious like and keeping an eye out for a possible attack..............
It seems to me, the kneeling man is describing Obama’s brain to the king.
If they understand that language well enough to know the chap’s name was OBSIDIAN, why wouldn’t it mean what it has always meant: A type of rock that all those ancient cultures used and shaped into various tools and weapons. Obsidian knives have been legendary, surpassing our modern scalpels for surgery. It has even been claimed that an incision made with an obsidian knife will heal faster than one made with a metal knife. FWIW.
That was a ghastly and horrid culture.
It appears that it’s a term with more than one use; analogously, a man can be called a rake.
Is the King holding a severed head?
I look at the picture of the dressed up dude and think “huh. I do love to laugh at the Ancient Alien guys, but dang...”
Tell me that don’t look like he’s wearing a a headset with speaker over the ears and a microphone on a boom by his mouth?
And a powerpack on his back? And what’s with the tail?
It’s possible, could also be a shrunken head.
Their attire came from a precolumbian chain of trendy stores.
Give ‘em time.
Mayans were part of the Obsidian Order?
Man, the things you learn.
Yeahbut, nobut, yeahbut...
Who was setting the trends and owned the franchise? Alpha Centaurians?
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