Maya carving at staircase in La Corona, Guatemala. Image Credit: Prensa Libre
GUATEMALA city – The new text was revealed this week by U.S. and Guatemalan archaeologists who explained that they discovered the inscribed stone hieroglyph last April during research carried out by students of the universities of Del Valle (Guatemala) and Tulane and Texas (United States).
U.S. archaeologist, David Stuart, one of the experts who announced the discovery, explained that the staircase where the inscription was discovered contains the longest Mayan text so far unearthed in Guatemala.
It’s the second reference that is found in the story about the change of the Maya calendar. The other is on a site called the Tortuguero in Tabasco (Mexico), said the Mayanist.
The stone carving was found in a set of panels that are part of a staircase discovered in the La Corona project, an archaeological site found in 1999 and located in Petén, on the border with Mexico and Belize in northern Guatemala, an area that served as the seat of the Maya civilization along with Honduras and El Salvador.
A report in this week’s newspaper Prensa Libre quotes Stuart, an epigrapher at the University of Texas, as saying that the stone makes reference to the 13th Baktun, Maya Calendar account long, and was carved to commemorate the visit of the King of the Maya city of Calakmul.
References To Baktún And The Maya Calendar
The Mayan calendar is based on a series of twenty years; each called a katún and a series of 20 katuns, called baktún, which equals about 394 years.
King Yuknoon Yichaak Kahk, who was the most powerful Maya ruler at the time, visited La Corona on November 29 of 696 A.D. after Christ, i.e. 13 centuries ago.
The text written in the stone refers to the culmination of the 13 Baktun on December 21, 2012.
In the hieroglyphs carved stones of the ancient Mayas did no prophecy but wrote events of their own history in the 7th century, the U.S. expert said.
He said that the stones reveal stories of rulers and nobles of La Corona with names in order, and also of queens – women that were related to the dynasty, but which were of Calakmur.
Cited, as an example, the figure of a nobleman who is speaking in Conference with the King of Calakmur, which was a Maya capital, and another who is sitting on a Maya throne whose stone refers to a war and that has feathers of quetzals (national bird and symbol of Guatemala ). According to Stuart, the La Corona was much smaller than the Calakmur Center, but had a close relationship with the capital.
Reaction To Disovery
Guatemalan archaeologist Tomas Barrientos explains that the staircase was formed by many panels, but they have only found 22 that were discarded by looters, 12 of which are carved with hieroglyphs.
“Why we consider that this is one of the longest Mayan texts of history,” because the panels were part of the front steps of the building which is estimated, had been a residence, according to Barrientos.
U.S. archaeologist Marcelo Canute, who coordinates the research project in La Corona, since 2005 says that the site was a the target of looters and the hieroglyphic monuments were “the most desired and coveted”.
Canute says that La Corona met initially known as “Q”, through reference to the looted monuments that are in museums of United States, Australia, and Europe.
In his opinion, the site had so much to choose from that the looters discarded the “more unattractive” and went with the ”more beautiful”.
“The looting demonstrates that in at La Corona there was something important,” according to Canute, director of the Middle Americna Research Institute at Tulane University.
“We have found many hieroglyphic monuments and we are trying to make a map of the site to see how it looked in the past, what its population was like and the use of animals so as to better understand the social, political and economic life of the city”, he said.
Guatemala, along with southern Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador is preparing to commemorate in several archaeological sites of the ancient maya civilization, the completion of the 13 Baktun. The event is being marketed as the biggest tourism event of the year. Once pitched as an end of the world event, tourism marketers such as the Belize Tourism Board are now selling it a the Dawn Of A New Era.