A remarkable archaeological discovery sheds important light on one of history’s greatest mysteries: the collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization in Central America.
The new discovery – the ritual destruction of symbolic icons of a deposed royal dynasty – helps reveal the complexity of this decline.
The discovery at Ucanal in northern Guatemala, combined with historical data from Mayan hieroglyphic texts copied from other sites, provides a unique look at the political instability that appeared to fundamentally alter Maya history.
Archaeologists believe the new discovery, the cremation of a long-dead king’s skeleton and sacred funeral robes, represents a new political system’s deliberate disrespect for the ancient royal rulers of a Mayan kingdom. This is one of the clearest examples of ancient geopolitical strife ever found in the Mayan world and is among the most important Mesoamerican archaeological discoveries of recent years.
The Mayan civilization consisted of dozens of competing kingdoms. Although the new political system at Ucanal (and the desecration incident) appears to have temporarily given that kingdom a new lease of life, it was almost certainly part of broader geopolitical instability that ultimately contributed to fundamental changes in much of the Maya civilization. a whole.
This civilization was at its most vibrant between 600 AD and 800 AD. But by 900 AD, the glory days were over for much of the Mayan world.. Part of this decline in the 9th century may have been an invasion by a people at the western edge of the Maya civilization. Some scholars suggest that Ucanal may have been captured by these outsiders in the 820s – and recently discovered evidence of desecration shows the extreme lengths to which the new rulers went to destroy Ucanal’s spiritual power (and possibly its remaining political prestige). the dynasty they had just dethroned.
Ucanal evidence shows that new rulers entered pyramid tombs or tombs, removing royal skeletons (and the sacred burial rites of iconic ancient Ucanal kings). It is likely that they then took these skeletons (and sacred royal regalia) and publicly burned them in one of the city’s major ceremonial squares. The destroyed material was then used as building material to help the new regime build a magnificent new temple pyramid, symbolizing the beginning of a new political era.
It is significant that the deliberately destroyed sacred regalia included the once magnificent jade death mask of a Ucanal king, a royal crown (part of which was also made of jade), a number of magnificent, very high-status jade necklaces, and other personal ornaments. , obsidian (volcanic glass) knives, and clothing or necklaces made from more than 10,000 shell beads.
The public burning of royal skeletons and regalia of the deposed dynasty was extensive; Temperatures above 800°C caused skeletons and sacred vestments to disintegrate.
“This discovery is very important because it gives us insight into a pivotal moment when the Maya world was experiencing political, economic and social changes,” said Professor Christina Halperin of the University of Montreal, one of the key archaeologists who excavated the site. .
“The public burning and desecration of the skeletons of the ancient Mayan kingdom represents a truly revolutionary turning point that contributed to the beginning of a new era of political rule among the Mayans,” he explained.
The foreign ruler who appears to have taken over Ucanal (and possibly several other Mayan kingdoms) was a military dictator named Papmalil (a non-Mayan name), who did not consider himself a traditional Mayan ruler based on the title he gave himself. Not as the traditional king of Ucanal, but as a military and political overlord controlling a much larger region. Indeed, the title he bears (Ochk’in KaloomtePossibly meaning ‘Supreme Warrior of the West’) was previously associated with the rulers of a large central Mexican empire (the Teotihuacan empire) that developed more than 500 miles to the west, some two centuries ago.
The events at Ucanal and the many other changes that mark the decline of the Classic Maya civilization across much of Mesoamerica almost certainly included climatic crises (especially droughts), overpopulation, political divisions, economic and trade problems, and possibly also It had complex reasons. epidemics and social instability, as well as invasions and wars.
But the Mayans as a people and much of their ancient culture persisted and, in fact, survive to this day. Only the major Mayan megacities (some with populations ranging from 30,000 to 180,000) and their magnificent pyramid-building traditions declined (first in the south of the Maya world around 900 AD – and then further north, around 1400 AD). .
The Mayans were later affected by the Spanish conquest. Although this conquest began in 1523, it took at least 170 years to complete. But the Mayans themselves are still a vibrant culture today; Six million people in five Central American countries still speak Mayan languages, and many still engage in traditional Mayan crafts and agriculture and perform Mayan rituals linked to ancient Mayan practices.
The discovery of royal desecration at Ucanal is being published this month by the UK-based international archaeological journal. ancient ages.
The full archaeological report can be read online: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.38
Ongoing archaeological research has revealed that ancient Maya Ucanal was a ten-square-mile metropolis with a monumental urban core of three square miles. So far archaeologists have mapped more than 2297 buildings, 65 of which are large monumental complexes (including more than 14 pyramids).