Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1,000 years stuns archaeologists

Archaeologists hunting for a sacred well beneath the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula have accidentally discovered a trove of more than 150 ritual objects—untouched for more than a thousand years—in a series of cave chambers that may hold clues to the rise and fall of the ancient Maya.

The discovery of the cave system, known as Balamku or “Jaguar God,” was announced by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in a press conference held today in Mexico City.

Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1,000 years stuns archaeologists

Farmers discovers the cave in 1966. An archaeologist named Víctor Segovia Pinto came to the cave and made a report about there being an abundance of artifacts there. Balamku was never excavated, Segovia told the farmers to seal the cave. Then all recorders of the cave disappeared and it was forgotten.

Was something covered-up at the site? It is possible that Segovia returned to the cave and removed items for some reason. It is good the cave has been rediscovered, but I have a bad feeling important items may no longer be there.



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Sealed Maya ritual cave that was ‘opening to the underworld’ uncovered after being untouched for 1,000 YEARS – and is filled with spooky relics

a reply to: LookingAtMars

And No Aliens .....

a reply to: LookingAtMars

S & F

Why does it seem new interesting ancient archeological discoveries are on the decline in recent years?

Isn’t Gobekli Tepe still 90% un-excavated?

I want more discoveries that pottery dammit! When’s the last time we had something jaw dropping?

Sorry, this should have gone in the rant forum I guess...

Not even a mention of what we''re looking at.
It might be exciting to archaeologists but us regular folks need jade carvings and mummies.
Not sure what there is about this cave that is ground breaking.
Interesting for sure but rather incomplete.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

If you view the slide show it has a little more info. The image I posted in the OP has this caption to the upper left of the page.

Incinerated organic material in the incense burners, when analyzed, may provide a wealth of critical information about the period in which the cave was used by the Maya.

But your point is valid, we must be unworthy to know all the facts or just couldn't understand them.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Think the big point they were trying to address was that it is almost fully intact and wasn't raided over the hundreds of years. Most times we find anything looters have taken lots of stuff or destroyed stuff just trampling around, looking for the good stuff to be sold on the black market.

However I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that.

a reply to: OzManHero

"we found everything perfectly intact!"
"found what?"
"stuff that's perfectly intact!"

Go team.

Anything suggestive of pre-columbian contact with indigenous peoples of the Americas is suppressed or outright destroyed.

You are descended from apes that walked from Ethiopia to Mexico. Shut up and don't question it, no matter how stupid it sounds.

a reply to: KKLOCO

Gobekli Tepe is jaw dropping.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Thanks OP! This is why I love ATS!

originally posted by: JFA13
a reply to: LookingAtMars

Thanks OP! This is why I love ATS!

Me too and I chose to become inspired to find out more about the Jaguar God(s).

en.m.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: KKLOCO

Gobekli Tepe is jaw dropping.

Yes, that was my point. Why haven’t they excavated the rest of it?

Can you please inform me about how this makes Trump bad?
a reply to: JFA13

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Cool. Even has ashed left in those pots from when they were cooking....or cremating.

Aww you got me all excited for a bunch of pots.

Nothing like Indiana Jones..

I wonder how they got the stuff in there? maybe there is another entrance somewhere and they crawled through a different passage that was originally intended for something else. Drainage maybe.

a reply to: snarfbot

It would be hard to get all that stuff in there and not break it. Good hiding place though.

I would love to see a map of the cave. I think a lot of the cave system is still unexplored.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: KKLOCO

Gobekli Tepe is jaw dropping.

Do people still believe that Gobleki Tepe was deliberately buried with dirt? For preservation?

I've read / heard that several times, and I think it's ridiculous, lol. The site is probably buried because of dirt naturally covering it over thousands of years.

But yeah the site is indeed jaw-dropping. I don't think anyone has figured out a mundane purpose for the site. Especially with the weird carvings of animals on the stones.

originally posted by: Quetzalcoatl14
Can you please inform me about how this makes Trump bad?
a reply to: JFA13

...You could just watch a random news video and see why he's bad, lol.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Not sure what there is about this cave that is ground breaking.

I think, in general, finding a site that has not been subject to secondary disturbance or use is pretty rare. Most sites have usually not been abandoned and "sealed up" leaving the context of the original site as it was left.

It does happen, occasionally, and it is very valuable from a knowledge perspective when it does.

Now everyone loves visually stunning or otherwise exceptional finds, even archaeologists, but most research is more of the "let's try to scrape out this brown stuff from this pot and see what it is" variety. Pretty boring, but if it can tell you what was in the pot, well, then it is pretty exciting for what it can tell you.

If this is an undisturbed ritual context, it can probably reveal a lot about what the people who made it did in their rituals. Not exceptionally exciting in itself, I guess, but another piece of a larger puzzle.

That's the thing about puzzles. If you want to get the larger picture, you have to fit all the unexciting brownish/green bits too, and before you know it you have a larger - and perhaps finally more exciting - picture.

But everyone loves the spectacular stuff, I agree.