Archaeologists unearth rare 7th century mask showing Mayan ruler in his old age

Dailymail.com ^ | Cheyenne Macdonald For

[BenLurkin]

The 20-centimeter (7.8 inch) stucco mask was found by a team with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) during an investigation of the temple’s ancient drainage system.

Palenque sits in the southern state of Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala.

According to Institute Director Diego Prieto, the mask appears to show the face of K'inich Janaab' Pakal – also known as Pacal the Great.

If it is, in fact, Pacal, the experts say it would be the first of its kind.

The mask includes wrinkle lines around the mouth and cheeks, which would make it ‘the first representation we have of an old Pacal,’ Arnoldo González Cruz from INAH said, according to Mexico News Daily.

Research at the site is aided by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, which provided roughly $500,000 to the effort.

In recent years there have been numerous discoveries that could help to shape our understanding of the Mayan civilization.

Researchers recently found evidence that the society’s collapse was brought on by a long period of drought. A team from the universities of Cambridge and Florida analyzed water samples from Mexico's Lake Chichancanab, where the Maya were based.

[Grimmy]

He’d have to be an alien for his face to come off like that.

[bankwalker]

Looks like Brennan ...

[Fred Nerks]

Now there you go, I never thought of that!

[HandyDandy]

Is such a thing even possible?

[Fred Nerks]

In the Formative period, the Olmec of the Gulf Coast were among the first Mesoamerican people to shape jade into votive celts, axes, and bloodletting tools around 1200-1000 BC. The Maya achieved master levels of jade carving. Maya artisans used drawing cords, harder minerals, and water as abrasive tools to work the stone. Holes were made in jade objects with bone and wood drills, and finer incisions were often added at the end. Jade objects varied in size and shapes and included necklaces, pendants, pectorals, ear ornaments, beads, mosaic masks, vessels, rings, and statues.

Among the most famous jade artifacts from the Maya region, we can include funeral masks and vessels from Tikal, and Pakal’s funeral mask and jewels from the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. Other burial offerings and dedication caches have been found at major Maya sites, such as Copan, Cerros, and Calakmul.

[Fred Nerks]

It’s a Mayan prototype Harley Davidson...

[Songcraft]

And here's his little brother...

       

[Fred Nerks]

He became a handbag

[nickedknack]

7th Century? OK!

[blueunicorn6]

I don’t think that mask will be a big seller this Halloween.

[Songcraft]

:-)

(And he excelled at that.)

[Oatka]

That sounds similar to their explanation of the Dendera Reliefs.

"The supposed Crooke’s tube is mentioned in the texts describing the scene as a sun barge, the boat in which the sun god Ra‘ travelled across the sky. The form of the barge is in no way unusual. In many representations, the solar bark consists of a string like object with a bow and stern, while gods and objects connected with the sun or the sunrise stand on the horizontal platform. One of these objects, usually seen at the stern, is the lotus flower, which is what Bielek describes as the lamp socket."

And then we have this guy:

[apocalypto]

for later

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPgS26ZhqZs

[Fred Nerks]

https://falsesteps.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/326898main_el-2002-00341_full.jpeg?w=584&h=444