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Subject: Maya Queen's Tomb found at Waka
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 22:47:40 -0500

Mayan Queen's Tomb Found in Rain Forest
JAMIE STENGLE
Associated Press

DALLAS - While excavating an ancient royal palace deep in the Guatemalan
rain forest, archaeologists made a rare discovery - the 1,200-year-old
tomb and skeleton of a Mayan queen.
Archaeologists announced the find Thursday, and said the woman appears
to have been a powerful leader of a city that may have been home to tens
of thousands of people at its peak. They found her bones on a raised
platform, with evidence of riches scattered around her body.
"We find clues of people's existence in the past all the time, from the
garbage they left or the buildings they built. ... But when you actually
come face-to-face with human beings, it's a deeply sacred moment for all
of us," said David Freidel, an anthropology professor at Southern
Methodist University, which sponsored a team of 20 archaeologists
excavating the site.
The discovery in the ancient Mayan city of Waka' in northwestern
Guatemala was made in February but was not made public until Thursday.
Word of the find comes two days after a Vanderbilt University
archaeologist, whose work is supported by the National Geographic
Society, publicly described excavation of a little-known Guatamalan site
called Cival, which housed as many as 10,000 people at its peak some
2,000 years ago.
Stephen Houston, a Brigham Young University professor specializing in
Mayan archaeology and writing who was not involved in the project,
called the tomb discovery significant.
"We haven't found to date many tombs of Maya queens," he said.
The tomb is the first discovered at Laguna del Tigre, Guatemala's
largest national park, where SMU began its excavation project in 2002.
The queen's skull and leg bones were missing, probably removed sometime
after the body had decomposed to be used as relics. Other than that, the
tomb - measuring 11 feet long by 4 feet wide by 6 feet high - was
untouched.
The queen is thought to have been 30 to 45 when she died, but
archaeologists have uncovered no clues as to her name, dynasty or cause
of death.
Freidel, who leads the excavation team with archaeologist Hector
Escobedo of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, said the power the
queen held is evident in the 1,600 artifacts found in the tomb -
especially the remains of a plated helmet.
Twenty-two jade plaques, each about 2 inches square, appear to have been
part of the helmet. Archeologists also found a 4-inch long jade carving
depicting the dead of a deity in profile - a type of jewel worn by kings
and queens, Freidel said.
Stingray spines found in the tomb were usually used as bloodletting
implements - males pierced their genitals in ceremonies that offered
their blood to the gods, while women generally placed the spines in
their tongues. The ones found in the tomb were placed on the queen's
pelvis, Freidel said.
"She's being represented as both male and female, in my view," Freidel
said.
Research suggests that Waka' - called El Peru on present-day maps - was
inhabited as early as 500 B.C., but reached its peak between A.D. 400
and A.D. 800. The city was abandoned in the late 800s to 900s.
Freidel's project is working with the Guatemala government and
conservation groups to try to protect 230,000 acres of the Laguna del
Tigre.
Last year, 100,000 acres of the park were burned as impoverished
villagers cleared rain forest for illegal cattle ranching and logging.
Freidel says the deforestation threatens habitat for several endangered
species, including the scarlet macaw, as well as the area's
archaeological resources.
ON THE NET
SMU: http://smu.edu/smunews/waka/default.asp






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