The tomb of Mayan “God-King” discovered in Guatemala, his status determined by the carved jade mask

The tomb of Mayan “God-King” discovered in Guatemala, his status determined by the carved jade mask

At the site of the Mayan city of Waka in northern Guatemala, the tomb of an ancient ‘god-king’ has been found. Ceramic analysis of site-based artefacts has been provisionally dated to between AD 300 and 350.

A stunning painted jade mask was included, which was key to identifying the tomb as belonging to a member of the royal lineage. It makes it the earliest known royal tomb in the country’s northwestern Petén region.

Six royal tombs and sacrificial offering burials dated to the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries AD have been discovered by previous research at the site. The finding was made by Guatemalan archaeologists from the Archaeological Project of the US-Guatemalan El Perú-Waka.

Research co-director David Freidel, professor of anthropology in arts and sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said:  ‘The Classic Maya revered their divine rulers and treated them as living souls after death. 

‘This king’s tomb helped to make the royal palace acropolis holy ground, a place of majesty, early in the history of the Wak—centipede—dynasty.  ‘It’s like the ancient Saxon kings England buried in Old Minister, the original church underneath Winchester Cathedral.’ 

El Perú-Waka’ is about 40 miles (65 km) west of the famous Maya site of Tikal near the San Pedro Martir River in Laguna del Tigre National Park.  In the Classic period, this royal city commanded major trade routes running north to south and east to west

The findings, first disclosed at a Guatemalan symposium sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, suggest the new tomb, known as Burial 80, dates from the early years of the Wak (centipede in Mayan) royal dynasty.

One of the earliest known Maya dynasties, the Wak is thought to have been established in the second century AD, based on calculations from a later historical text at the site.

Although the ruler in Burial 80, identified as a mature man, was not accompanied by inscribed artifacts and is therefore anonymous, he is possibly King Te’ Chan Ahk. He was a historically known Wak king who was ruling in the early fourth century AD, the research team suggests.

Dr Freidel has directed research at this site in collaboration with Guatemalan and foreign archaeologists since 2003. Anthropologists Juan Carlos Pérez Calderon of San Carlos University in Guatemala and Damien Marken of Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania are project co-directors. 

Olivia Navarro-Farr, assistant professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio, is co-principal investigator and long-term supervisor of the site.

Dr Calderon and Guatemalan archaeologists Griselda Pérez Robles and Damaris Menéndez supervised tunnel excavations inside the Palace Acropolis that led to the new tomb.

Identification of the tomb as royal is based on the presence of a jade portrait mask depicting the ruler with the forehead hair tab of the Maize God.  Maya kings were regularly portrayed as Maize God impersonators. 

This forehead tab has a unique Greek Cross symbol which means ‘yellow’ and ‘precious’ in ancient Mayan.  This symbol is also associated with the Maize God.

Drs Robles and Menéndez discovered the mask under the head of the ruler, and it may have been made to cover the face rather than as a chest pectoral. 

Archaeologists at Tikal in the 1960s discovered a similar greenstone mask in the earliest Maya royal tomb, dating to the first century AD

Additional offerings in Burial 80 included 22 ceramic vessels, Spondylus shells, jade ornaments and a shell pendant carved as a crocodile. The remains of the ruler and some ornaments like the portrait mask were painted bright red. 

Burial 80 was reverentially reentered after 600 AD at least once, and it is possible that the bones were painted during this reentry.