Posted on 03/05/2019 10:05:25 AM PST by BenLurkin
To access just the first of seven ritual offering chambers identified so far within Balamku, archaeologists must crawl flat on their stomachs through hundreds of feet of tortuously narrow passages. In the original report on the cave (recently located by archaeologist and GAM investigator James Brady of California State University, Los Angeles), Segovia identified 155 artifacts, some with faces of Toltec rain god Tláloc, and others with markings of the sacred ceiba tree, a potent representation of the Maya universe. In comparison, the nearby cave of Balankanché, a ritual site excavated in 1959, contains just 70 of these objects.
“Balamku appears to be the ‘mother’ of Balankanché,” says de Anda. “I don’t want to say that quantity is more important than information, but when you see that there are many, many offerings in a cave that is also much more difficult to access, this tells us something.”
Why Segovia would decide to seal up such a phenomenal discovery is still a matter of debate. But in doing so, he inadvertently provided researchers with an unprecedented “second chance” to answer some of the most perplexing questions that continue to stir controversy among Mayanists today, such as such as the level of contact and influence exchanged between different Mesoamerican cultures, and what was going on in the Maya world prior to the fall of Chichén Itzá.
Investigators of the Great Maya Aquifer Project see the (re)discovery of Balamku as a chance to implement a totally new model of cave archaeology, one that employs cutting-edge technology and specialized fields such as 3-D mapping and paleobotany. These new insights could give us a much more detailed idea of what was actually occurring in Maya cave rituals, as well as the history of the great city of Chichén Itzá, which declined for unknown reasons...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...
Por usted, amigo!
I’ll bet it was almost exactly as it was when the explorers discovered the new world in the 15th century.
Life Tip: If you ever have the opportunity to go deep into a cave where you have to crawl on your belly for hundreds of feet through tight passages, you should crawl backward so you are less likely to get stuck. And you should be the last one to enter, in case someone else gets stuck.
Super Life Tip: Keep out of caves like this.
Good advice!
Super duper life tip: send in a drone crawler
just ask ted the caver
Nothing about dart traps, giant rolling boulders or a rival archeologist with a bunch of natives.
Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope! Dang Mayans.
Of at least rat sized robots hearing cameras.
Keggers.
Mayan keggers.
That’s what they used them for.
Super cool!
Trump should tell Jerry Nadler all his secrets are in that cave but only Nadler can go in and retrieve them.
Grassy-Ass
bookmark
Or someone dumb with a GoPro
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